re: Alice in Chains Unplugged MTV - Thoughts

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Well, for me it is a difference of song/style preference. I get that Nirvana was so influential, but there are just a handful of their songs for me. Although I did not really dig into the AIC catalogue (much beyond Man in the Box) until right around the time Staley passed, I like 3 or 4 AIC songs for every Nirvana song I dig.

That along makes AIC's show better than Nirvana's for me.

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One thing to note, if we are just discussing the Unplugged shows. Alice in Chains played their songs. They played most of their hits and only a few more obscure ones. They only had a few full albums and people were still digesting their latest album.

Nirvana barely played any of their hits during their show. Kurt even says with the first song "This is off our first record. Most people don't own it." Sure they played Come As You Are. But then they played a David Bowie song, a few songs with The Meat Puppets, and a Leadbelly song. It was great, but that is NOT what MTV was expecting.

Edited. Originally said Nirvana played Heart Shaped Box, but they didn't.

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 4:51 in “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” by Nirvana gives me chills. Kurt’s expression is haunting.

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This is a chilling moment, it feels like this exact moment is when Kurt gave up the ghost. It's fitting he decorated the venue like a funeral

It's great they got that moment on film, but as a former user, I know exactly how he felt there, he had a rush of all kinds of stuff, body sensation, feelings, mentally.

Being a performer myself in the past, performance can really show you true power, and especially a song like that, and that moment of that song, it's like he was channeling the writer, add banging heroin to it and there's not many things better/more powerful than that exact moment, it's haunting to see it for me

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Do you mean All Apologies? Pretty sure they did not play Heart Shaped Box.

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Oof. Good callout. Not sure what I was thinking.

I’ve listened to this album more than any other album in existence. It never gets old. Watching the performance is even more enjoyable. Layne was hurting and weighing in at about 100lbs, frail looking, probably needing a fix, Jerry Cantrell keeps a watchful eye over him like a babysitter, but he’s still as cool as he ever was.

My wife bought me this record on vinyl for my birthday. It's one of the best live acoustic performances of all time in my opinion, both for the quality of the recording and for their performance.