Cornell outshines at Avalon
R. Bradford Bates '08
Issue date: 5/2/07 Section: Arts & Culture
Former Soundgarden/ Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell made a concert appearance last week (April 19) at the Avalon Ballroom in Boston. Having gained his status as the leader of the seminal grunge era band Soundgarden and having recently departed the rock super group Audioslave, Cornell is touring in intimate venues in support of his new solo album "Carry On" to be released on June 5.
With no opening act on the bill and an increasingly anxious crowd waiting for the show to start, Cornell and his backing band did not disappoint in the festivities as they hit the stage at around quarter to nine to launch into the Soundgarden classic "Spoonman" off of 1994's Superunknown, the defunct bands artistic and commercial zenith.
Cornell relegated himself to concentrating on his vocals for the majority of the show leaving much of the musicianship up to his crack band of gun-for-hire session musicians. Having been criticized of late for the decline and decay of his legendary vocal abilities, Cornell is out to put those rumors to rest. It seems that having quit smoking recently has certainly helped a great deal as Cornell was able to hit the searing vocal heights of other Soundgarden classics such as the pop driven "Burden in My Hand" and the savage metal of "Rusty Cage."
During the middle portion of the set Cornell previewed songs from his new album and even threw in a solo acoustic version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" for good measure. Cornell also played some songs from his tenure in Audioslave, the band featuring Cornell and the former members of Rage Against the Machine that dissolved in the fall of last year due to the ever-so-redundant excuse of "creative differences." The Audioslave songs picked were certainly the ones Cornell had more influence on helping to create a more cohesive sound and theme to the show as "Like a Stone" and "Doesn't Remind Me" fit seamlessly into the set.
The big surprises of the night however was the inclusion of songs from the short-lived supergroup Temple of the Dog, a band featuring Cornell and the primary members of Pearl Jam. The band was formed by Cornell in 1990 to pay tribute to his deceased former roommate Andy Wood of the band Mother Love Bone, some of whose members went on to form Pearl Jam.
With no opening act on the bill and an increasingly anxious crowd waiting for the show to start, Cornell and his backing band did not disappoint in the festivities as they hit the stage at around quarter to nine to launch into the Soundgarden classic "Spoonman" off of 1994's Superunknown, the defunct bands artistic and commercial zenith.
Cornell relegated himself to concentrating on his vocals for the majority of the show leaving much of the musicianship up to his crack band of gun-for-hire session musicians. Having been criticized of late for the decline and decay of his legendary vocal abilities, Cornell is out to put those rumors to rest. It seems that having quit smoking recently has certainly helped a great deal as Cornell was able to hit the searing vocal heights of other Soundgarden classics such as the pop driven "Burden in My Hand" and the savage metal of "Rusty Cage."
During the middle portion of the set Cornell previewed songs from his new album and even threw in a solo acoustic version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" for good measure. Cornell also played some songs from his tenure in Audioslave, the band featuring Cornell and the former members of Rage Against the Machine that dissolved in the fall of last year due to the ever-so-redundant excuse of "creative differences." The Audioslave songs picked were certainly the ones Cornell had more influence on helping to create a more cohesive sound and theme to the show as "Like a Stone" and "Doesn't Remind Me" fit seamlessly into the set.
The big surprises of the night however was the inclusion of songs from the short-lived supergroup Temple of the Dog, a band featuring Cornell and the primary members of Pearl Jam. The band was formed by Cornell in 1990 to pay tribute to his deceased former roommate Andy Wood of the band Mother Love Bone, some of whose members went on to form Pearl Jam.
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