ALICE IN CHAINS & BREAKING BENJAMIN WSG BUSH @ Soaring Eagle Casino

Alice in Chain are Back

Alice in Chains and Breaking Benjamin with special guest BUSH are coming to the Soaring Eagle Casino on Friday, September 23rd.

Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains both epitomized the solemn, heavy Seattle sound of the 1990s and stood apart from the grunge hordes. What separated Alice in Chains from their alt-rock brethren was how their roots lay in heavy metal, not punk. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell and vocalist Layne Staley both played in metal bands prior to the formation of Alice in Chains in 1987 and they released the band’s debut, Facelift, in 1990, well before Nirvana’s Nevermind pushed the underground into the mainstream. Despite their connections to metal, Alice in Chains thrived in the glory days of grunge, and it wasn’t merely a question of timing, either. The band’s sensibility fit into the alternative rock zeitgeist of the early ’90s. Cantrell’s gloomy, minor-key riffs were an ideal match for Staley’s tortured lyrics, creating a sound that felt as heavy as their Seattle cohorts but also was slightly slicker and ready for radio. It was versatile, too. After the group scored rock radio and MTV hits with “Man in the Box” and “Would?” in the early days of grunge, Alice in Chains became one of the first alt-rock bands of the ’90s to delve into acoustic-based music, scoring hits with the comparatively softer “No Excuses” and “I Stay Away.” Despite its success, the band was plagued with internal tensions during its commercial peak, much of it stemming from Staley’s drug addictions. His abuse slowed the band’s upward trajectory in the back half of the ’90s, a descent culminating in the singer’s accidental death in 2002. Four years later, Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Inez revived Alice in Chains with singer William DuVall, sparking an extended second life of recording and touring that has lasted longer than their original incarnation.

Breaking Benjamin

Breaking Benjamin has produced seven studio albums, their latest new music is the compilation album, Aurora, which contains reworked versions of some of the band’s biggest hits, and features guest appearances from Lacey Sturm, Michael Barnes of Red, Adam Gontier of Saint Asonia, Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath, and Scooter Ward from Cold. Aurora peaked at number 29 on the billboard 200 and number 1 on both the Billboard Top Rock Album and Hard Rock Album Charts. Breaking Benjamin is lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist Benjamin Burnley, bassist and backing vocalist Aaron Bruch, guitarist and backing vocalist Keith Wallen, guitarist Jasen Rauch, and drummer Shaun Foist.

Bush

English rock band Bush emerged during the grunge boom of the early ’90s, becoming the first British band post-Nirvana to hit it big in America. Following the release of their breakthrough debut, 1994’s Sixteen Stone, they carried that international, multi-platinum success to greater heights with their chart-topping follow-up, Razorblade Suitcase. A hit on radio and MTV, the band — fronted by guitarist/vocalist Gavin Rossdale — rounded out their peak period of popularity with 1999’s experimental The Science of Things. By 2001, shake-ups to their founding lineup and the poor performance of Golden State led the group to disband; they would not return for almost a decade. In the meantime, Rossdale went on to form a new band and work on solo material, eventually kick-starting the group again in 2010. They made their big comeback the following year with The Sea of Memories, the beginning of a new phase for Bush. Rossdale and his bandmates remained busy in the 2010s, issuing an additional pair of efforts (2014’s Man on the Run and 2017’s Black and White Rainbows) while maintaining a rigorous touring schedule.

Tickets to ALICE IN CHAINS & BREAKING BENJAMIN WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BUSH AND PLUSH

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