With
Alice in Chains
on hiatus by the turn of the 21st century,
Columbia Records
issued several stop-gap releases to fill up the space -- 1999's greatest-hits collection
Nothing Safe
and the box set
Music Bank
, and a year later, their first true live collection, titled simply
Live
. Despite
' inability (or outright refusal) to launch a proper tour after 1994, fans lucky enough to have caught one of their early tours will attest that they were quite a powerful live act. Their detuned sound and tales from the darkside are even more sinister and gripping on the concert stage, as evidenced by this 14-track set. With a healthy helping of selections from their 1992 tour de force,
Dirt
,
let it rip on such metallic standouts as
"Dam That River,"
"Would?,"
"Rooster,"
"Angry Chair,"
"Junkhead,"
and a "drunk and disorderly" version of
's title track. Also featured are the early classics
"Man in the Box"
and
"Bleed the Freak,"
as well as a track that never appeared on any of their official studio albums,
"Queen of the Rodeo."
shows what a devastating live band
could be. ~ Greg Prato