Alice In Chains

According to his mother Gayle, the official public gathering/memorial for late ALICE IN CHAINS bassist Mike Starr will be held on Sunday, March 20th at The Fountain (Seattle Center) in Seattle, Washington starting at 4 PM. Details:

The Fountain
Inside the Seattle Center
305 Harrison Street
Seattle, WA 98109
www.seattlecenter.com
Click here for map.

Former ALICE IN CHAINS Bassist Mike Starr

According to TMZ, former ALICE IN CHAINS bassist Mike Starr died in Utah.

Police tell TMZ Starr’s body was found in a Salt Lake City home today. Cops say they were called to the house at 1:42PM.

Starr appeared on the third season of Celebrity Rehab back in 2009 – and was arrested last month for felony possession of a controlled substance. Salt Lake City cops say he had 6 Xanax pills and 6 Opana (painkiller) pills when he was busted.

Starr was 44 years old.

Mike’s dad tells TMZ, “It’s a terrible shock and tragedy.”

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, police do not suspect foul play.

The medical examiner’s office will likely conduct an autopsy on Wednesday, says Reuters, but the results of toxicology tests could take up to two months.

Starr appeared on Alice In Chain’s most successful albums including Facelift (1990), Sap (1992) and Dirt (1992). Starr later played bass for the band SUN RED SUN, which featured Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli, both former members of BLACK SABBATH. The project was cut short by Gillen’s death in 1993.

Starr appeared on the third season of Celebrity Rehab back in 2009 – and was arrested last month for felony possession of a controlled substance. Salt Lake City cops say he had 6 Xanax pills and 6 Opana (painkiller) pills when he was busted.

Alice In Chains

Los Angeles, CA (September 22, 2010) – Multi-platinum-selling rock band ALICE IN CHAINS will debut the video for new hit single “Lesson Learned” on Yahoo! Music today. Conceived and directed by Paul Matthaeus, known for his groundbreaking main titles on the award-winning HBO series “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood,” and produced with Bobby Hougham and Sevrin Daniels of Blank Design, the video is comprised of over 6,000 still pictures stitched together to create a visually stunning stop-frame animated clip.

Using physical lacerations as a metaphor for lessons learned, the video sees a young man and woman plummet through a derelict industrial building. Tattered clothes dissolve off, revealing wounds that symbolize emotional learning. The video was shot entirely as a stop–frame animation, but with live actors on set. The clip can be seen at music.yahoo.com.

Following the Grammy nominated smash “Check My Brain” and second single “Your Decision,” “Lesson Learned” is the third consecutive top five single to be released from Alice In Chains’ gold-certified new album Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin/EMI). It’s also the 13th top ten hit of the band’s illustrious career.

The “Lesson Learned” video follows the recently released “Acid Bubble” clip, an interactive video produced by Spy Films and director Nick Goso in which users manipulate their perspective and experience 360-degree environments. It can be seen here: http://bdsobsolescence.com/

Alice In Chains (guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, guitarist/vocalist William DuVall, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez) have spent the past year performing a string of sold out headlining tours around the world in support of Black Gives Way To Blue. Fueled by lead single “Check My Brain,” which rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Rock Songs Chart, Black Gives Way To Blue entered Billboard’s Top 200 at No. 5. They maintained momentum with follow-up hit “Your Decision,” which also shot straight to No. 1. The album has also been drawing rave reviews: Playboy gave it four stars, calling it “Alice In Chains’ Back In Black.” The Boston Globe wrote, “Alice In Chains is back in business and business is good,” and Metal Hammer said, “Alice In Chains are back and every bit as exciting and heavy.” The fans have been equally vocal: Guitar World magazine readers poll voted Black Gives Way To Blue “Rock Album of the Year” and readers of Revolver magazine awarded the group “Album of the Year” honors at the recent Revolver Golden Gods Award show.

Alice In Chains is currently headlining BLACKDIAMONDSKYE, a monolithic triple bill featuring special guests Deftones and Mastodon.

BLACKDIAMONDSKYE dates are as follows:

Wednesday, Sept. 22             Boston, MA                 Agannis Arena

Friday, Sept. 24                      New York, NY             Madison Square Garden

Saturday, Sept. 25                  Camden, NJ               Susquehanna Theatre

Sunday, Sept. 26                    Fairfax, VA                  Patriot Center

Saturday, Sept. 28                  Atlanta, GA                 Lakewood Amphitheatre

Friday, Oct. 1                          St. Louis, MO              Scottrade Arena

Saturday, Oct. 2                     Kansas City, MO        Sandstone Amp.

Monday, Oct. 4                       Denver, CO                Red Rocks

Thursday, Oct. 7                     Vancouver, BC           GM Place

Friday, Oct. 8                          Seattle, WA                 Key Arena

Saturday, Oct. 9                     Portland, OR               Memorial Coliseum

Monday, Oct.11                      San Jose, CA              SJSU Event Center

Tuesday, Oct. 12                    Los Angeles, CA         Gibson Amphitheatre

Friday, Oct. 15                        San Diego, CA            Viejas Arenas

Saturday, Oct. 16                      Las Vegas, NV         The Joint

www.blackdiamondskye.com

www.aliceinchains.com

Alice In Chains

Alice In Chains is proud to introduce an interactive music video experience for “Acid Bubble”!  Produced by Spy Films (http://www.spyfilms.com/), director Nick Goso created an interactive space where users manipulate their perspective and experience 360-degree environments.  Check it out now at: http://www.aliceinchains.com/acidbubble

There is also a non-interactive version available on YouTube (see below).

The video celebrates today’s kick-off of BLACKDIAMONDSKYE, featuring Alice In Chains, Deftones, and Mastodon. The tour will be hitting 19 cities in the US and Canada (http://www.blackdiamondskye.com). Dates are as follows:

Sep 16 Chicago, IL Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island

Sep 17 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre

Sep 18 Toronto, ON Molson Canadian Amphitheatre

Sep 20 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena

Sep 22 Boston, MA Agannis Arena

Sep 24 New York, NY Madison Square Garden

Sep 25 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Theatre

Sep 26 Fairfax, VA Patriot Center

Sep 28 Atlanta, GA Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood

Oct 1 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center

Oct 2 Kansas City, MO Sandstone Amphitheatre

Oct 4 Denver, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Oct 7 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena

Oct 8 Seattle, WA Key Arena

Oct 9 Portland, OR Memorial Coliseum

Oct 11 San Jose, CA SJSU Event Center

Oct 12 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre

Oct 15 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena

Oct 16 Las Vegas, NV The Joint

BLACKDIAMONDSKYE will surprise one lucky fan at each stop of the tour, with a chance to win BIG! Each stop of the tour will play host to a contest series.  Hidden at every venue will be a very special BLACKDIAMONDSKYE envelope… The lucky fan who comes across this envelope will find its contents to be a VIP laminate for that evening’s show, along with information on how to redeem SIGNED setlists from Alice In Chains, Deftones, and Mastodon.  Additionally, this fan will be automatically entered into a drawing for the ULTIMATE BLACKDIAMONDSKYE PRIZE PACK which includes a custom BDS-artwork Gibson guitar, signed by each band, and a Marshall amplifier half stack! More details can be found here: http://www.blackdiamondskye.com/alice-in-chains/the-briefcase-has-been-opened-3/

Fans can follow @blckdmndskye on Twitter for clues on where to find the hidden envelope each day.

SONISPHERE 

REVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Sonisphere festival landed for the second time in Finland. Even though Sonisphere was once again the biggest metal event here with over 60 000 visitors, it made more headlines for other reasons other than it’s brilliant artists. A huge storm hit the festival area and winds ripped apart one of the main stage’s support scaffolding and sent it flying into the crowd. Altogether around 40 people were injured, with three requiring hospitalization. The accident delayed the concert for a few hours and all scheduled performances on the second stage were cancelled. Iggy Pop managed to play a short acoustic set on the main stage but Motley Crue was forced to cancel its entirely show because bands instruments were completely destroyed by the storm.

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Velvet Revolver/Alice In Chains
Friday, September 7, 2007
Pacific Coliseum
Vancouver, BC  Canada

***Live Review and All Photos By Lord of The Wasteland

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