Alice in Chains + Deftones + Mastodon

While it's true that the affected moans of the late Layne Staley birthed legions of frightful imitators, the Alice in Chains catalog nevertheless features a whole bunch of bona fide alt-rock classics. Still, few would have guessed that Black Gives Way to Blue, AIC's first record with latter-day singer William DuVall, would connect as strongly as it did, nor that the group would find itself headlining the Garden with two of the more revered and diverse bands populating the fringes of the alt-metal mainstream.