chris cornell at the house of blues - 11/07/07

YES! last night, my wife and i experienced an incredible show at the house of blues in myrtle beach. chris cornell completely obliterated my ears with a most rockin' show (just after i recovered from that mudhoney show last weekend...). i will get to mr. cornell in a moment though. the opening band was a three piece from new york called earl greyhound. they put on an enjoyable show, very bluesy, soulful rock music. kinda gritty at times, but in a sexy way, you know? the female bass player and the male guitar player shared vocal duties and harmonized nicely throughout. the drummer was quite good as well, and he sure loves those cymbals! {!crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!} check 'em out.

chris cornell came out with a full band of two guitarists, a bass player, and a drummer. this tour is to promote his brand new solo album carry on, which is a great mixture of hard-driving rock and soulful tunes like only he can pull off. as i said, the show was excellent, and was sort of like a greatest-hits-by-bands-that-chris-cornell-has-fronted show. he covered all eras of his previous bands' works, from soundgarden's louder than love and badmotorfinger to temple of the dog's self-titled album to audioslave's three albums. here are the songs that i remember hearing, in no particular order:


photo courtesy of my sorta crappy camera phone

doesn't remind me, outshined, whole lotta love (led zeppelin cover), cochise, show me how to live, what you are, no such thing, hunger strike, spoonman, billie jean (yes, the michael jackson song), you know my name, loud love, slaves and bulldozers, ty cobb, and burden in my hand. and in the middle of all of that, he played the following tracks, with just him and an acoustic guitar: can't change me, thank you (another led zeppelin cover), like a stone, call me a dog, fell on black days, and he finished off the acoustic set with i am the highway, where the band joined him halfway through the song to lead back into more rockin' songs. the highlight of the evening for my wife, i know, was when they played seasons, from the singles sountrack.


photo courtesy of my sorta crappy camera phone

seem like a lot of songs? that's because they played for nearly three hours. "what???", you say? it is true. they came out at 9:00 and left the stage at 11:45. all during the show, the guitar picks were raining on the crowd, so if you were there, and you didn't get one, you must have been sleeping in the corner (anna got hit with two in the face, me with one). it is hard to believe that after all these years of constant recording and touring that his voice has held up so well (he sounds better than ever, and doesn't even flinch at hitting the high notes that he was hitting in the late 80's). he is also still in great physical shape, which most of the ladies in the crowd were admiring. an all-out excellent show. if you get a chance to see him on this tour, don't hesitate. i never forgot how much i love old soundgarden and temple of the dog, but seeing him perform these songs live took it to a whole new level for me. did i mention we got a guitar pick?