Personally, I think William DuVall does 'decent' on the studio tracks he fronts, but live -- forget it. I tried to listen to a AIC live show on YouTube the other day, and I equate DuVall's live singing to ear rape.

I usually don't use words that strong, but he's that awful live, as least from the audio i've heard. It really sounds terrible, and frankly with all of the post-grunge acts out there, my thoughts is there has to be someone out there that can do better.

It's a tricky thing. I agree with you I don't want a full on Layne impersonator, because it shits on the memory of Layne, but at the same time those who think DuVall actually does a good Layne service I think are crazy, and at the same time the people that completely shit on DuVall and say that "AIC doesn't exist; Layne's dead" are also completely wrong.

So i'm drifting off in some AIC purgatory. I think DuVall does well enough in a studio setting that his songs are good (Jerry's are great, obviously, the actual AIC). But after hearing what I heard live, I have absolutely no plans to see them live, unless it's 'dirt' cheap.

Those who make comments like, "if you close your eyes, you can almost pretend Layne's there".... maybe in a studio setting, but live... Jesus God no.

Even with BGWTB, I was glad Jerry stuck to leading the album primarily. I really hope they stick with that in the next album. If they give William more of a role in the next album, it might become more apparent how average he is. The reason the last album worked was because they situationally used him, and that worked. It's kind of like the relief pitcher who can give you 3 outs/3 strikeouts easy if all he has to pitch is a half inning. But if he had to start the game and give you 7 full innings, he'd probably give up 6 runs a game. That's William DuVall. The relief pitcher of grunge.