On Rememberance Day (of all days – yes this post is a bit late…) I went down to Mac Hall to check out one of the most recognized voices in Rock/Grunge/Alternative (whatever) music today – Chris Cornell. Playing most notably with Soundgarden in the early 90′s, he went on to front the mighty Audioslave and is now venturing into what will be a solid solo career.
I had yet to ever see Chris in concert and really wanted to know if his voice was really that good LIVE or if the studio had enhanced it – like they do with many artists today. I can happily say that he absolutely WAILS live and managed to scream his way through two sets of Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and even Led Zeppelin covers. Speaking of Zeppelin, a recent article in Spin Magazine mentioned that there were rumors that Chris Cornell would be heading out on tour with Led Zep in the summer of 2009 as Robert Plant has made it clear that he was committed to his tour with Alison Krauss. It just made it more special when for the second encore, Cornell’s band launched into Immigrant Song.
The sound was great, the band was insanely talented, Cornell absolutely ROCKED the house and had the whole place in the palm of his hand when halfway through the first set he came out solo and played 6 songs acoustically from both his solo albums and former band albums. Most notably was his version of Billie Jean from Michael Jackson which was very well done.
His new single “Scream” was co-written and produced by Hip-Hop producer Timbaland and has to be one of the best and most unique tracks I’ve heard Chris sing on. If you haven’t checked it out yet, hit up your favorite online/offline store and check it out.
