Another perfect Michigan summer night and another concert packed with hits.   Alice In Chains brought their American Tour 22 to Pine Knob and the fans got a solid earful of rock with help from Bush and Breaking Benjamin.  AIC hasn’t been to Michigan in 3 years although we did get a little taste when Jerry Cantrell came to Detroit last year.  This show was highly anticipated for me as I have never seen them perform live.   I was in for a real treat as one of the pioneers of Seattle grunge music was soon to take the stage.   

Bush took the stage first and seemingly everyone in attendance knew the words to every song they played.  Talking to some guests at the show, I heard more than once that Bush could easily headline a tour on their own and fill the place.  A great way to get the night started as Bush looked and sounded fantastic.  Gavin Rossdale has certainly lost no steps as he was all over the stage addressing the entire crowd getting them more and more hyped.   Eventually, Rossdale outgrew the stage and ended up traveling all through the crowd and onto that famous Pine Knob hill getting hugs and cheers from the sea of people.

After a brief intermission, Breaking Benjamin brought the fire to the stage with their act, literally fire with some great pyrotechnics.   Unfortunately,  we didn’t have access to cover BB.   We were informed by 313 Presents that the tour required separate approval for each artist and they could not reach the bands management to cover.  We could hear the show from the staging area for media and they did sound amazing.  Frequent roars from the crowd let us know that the fans were having a damn good time. 

We had the salad and appetizer, and now it was time for the main course.  The first two bands performed at the highest level and would normally be a tough act to follow, however,  AIC is a heavy hitting band and would soon deliver a feast of jams.   The audio was absolutely on point and I couldn’t see them sounding much better. Alice In Chains is another one of those bands where I felt they were great before seeing them live and yet still blown away at how good they perform.  Fairly certain that they covered all of the crowd favorites.   Each song they played made me say to myself “oh good, glad they are playing this one” I’ve seen some incredible shows since a long Covid hiatus but this one, for me, brought me right back into the groove of things.  As I rolled down Bob Seger Dr exiting, I felt that buzz of excitement- I didn’t want to leave.  I’d love to be able to bottle up that feeling and sell it because I would be one rich mf’r!  Alice In Chains left a mark with this one and it will be hard to top that show for Pine Knob as far as I’m concerned.

All in all, another great show in the books. Hope you enjoy.

~Joe