According to the AFP, organizers of tonight's (Friday, March 12) METALLICA concert in Venezuela are heeding to lessons learned during Wednesday's (March 10) riots in Bogota, and have called on a large contingent of police officers, civil protection officers, firefighters and private security agents to ensure an orderly concert in Caracas.

The 50,000-strong expected crowd will also have to go through metal detectors before they can enter Rinconada stadium.

Violence and chaos broke out around Simon Bolivar Park in Bogota, Colombia on Wednesday night as hundreds of fans tried to crash METALLICA's first concert in the South American country in 11 years. According to Colombia Reports, three people were stabbed, a policeman injured, and more than 50 people were arrested, while property was vandalized and destroyed.

A local radio report claimed that there were posts on Facebook before the show urging fans to crash the gig.

Heavy security blanketed the show itself, including 1,500 police officers, four tanks and several police trucks. Estimates of the paid crowd at the show varied between 20,000 and 70,000.

ALICE IN CHAINS has launched a weekly video tour diary via MySpace. This video blog captures backstage and on-the-road moments from the concluding dates of the band's current North American tour. New footage will be launched each Wednesday for three weeks, so keep checking the band's MySpace page.

Check out the first part of the video diary below.

ALICE IN CHAINS recently launched an online comic book promotion allowing fans to add their chapters to the controversial storyline depicted in the "Your Decision" video. The "Your Decision" comic picks up where the video leaves off, with fans determining how the story ends. A page featuring a master storyboard with the comic's opening chapter was laid out at AliceInChains.com/YourDecision.

ALICE IN CHAINS has extended its current North American tour into mid-May, with a new leg of dates beginning on April 15 in Portland, Maine and ending on May 23 in Camden, New Jersey. More shows are likely to be announced to fill in the early part of May. The band is touring behind its 2009 comeback effort, "Black Gives Way To Blue", and singer/guitarist William DuVall told The Pulse of Radio that he likes what he's seeing in the audiences. "There's a lot of young people showing up, so that this thing has become a generational band now," he said. "So you've got people, 15, 16, 17 years old, that are coming of their own volition. I mean, they're not being brought there by their parents or anything. They're coming on their own. They're bringing their friends. So that's one thing that's a real sign that perhaps you're onto something."