By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Chris Cornell was in fine singing form last night.
Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell made the announcement almost exactly an hour into the show as the Grammy-winning quartet wrapped up its "Down on the Upside" tour before thousands of enthusiastic fans at the NBC Arena last night. Some in the crowd may have made the connection (Cash recently recorded Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage"); for many, it didn't seem to register. Johnny who? We're here for Soundgarden!
Most of them had sprung for the $25 general admission tickets required for entry to the arena floor; reserved seating upstairs was $25 for the loges and $20 for the higher altitudes. As it turned out there was plenty of unreserved seating available on the risers downstairs so fans who'd opted for the $25 "no seats" tickets got the best deal. Except for the riser seating though, it was just like going to the now-defunct Groove, but bigger and much less intimate. The Arena was far from sold out, but a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum band like Soundgarden would have been too big for the Groove anyway.
It was a professional business-as-usual performance by band and audience alike. The first 15 or 20 rows of fans on the arena floor surged and swayed and supported the usual group of crowd surfers. Farther to the rear lighters flickered on during the ballads. Crowd favorites, like "Ty Cobb," with its catchy and unprintable-in-a-family-newspaper refrain - sent pulsating waves of energy rippling back through the arena-level crowd to dissipate against the risers. More passive fans watched in peace.
Although they'd refused to do interviews supporting their shows here, Cornell and his partners - Kim Thayil (lead guitar), Ben Shepherd (bass) and Matt Cameron (drums) - showed no signs of end-of-tour burn-out in their 85-minute performance. Cornell's much-acclaimed vocals swept over the crowd amid a sonic maelstrom. He took up a guitar from time to time as well and appeared solo or semi-solo several times as the set progressed.
It was in the softer semi-acoustic numbers that the textures and timbre of his voice could be best appreciated. Even though higher volume and greater harshness is generally expected in concert performances as compared to studio recordings, Cornell explored melodies softer than would be expected from the selections on the group's most recent hit album, "Down on the Upside."
Conversely, a segment showcasing Shepherd and Cameron was a intense and imaginative alternative to a conventional concert arena drum solo.
With the musical focus on songs from "Down on the Upside" and "Superunknown," the show addressed the desires of the hordes of recent converts perfectly; "Pretty Noose," expected by many to be a winner at the Grammys later this month, seemed to be one of the crowd's favorites.
Other crowd pleasers from "Superunknown" included "My Wave," "Fell on Black Days," and the Grammy-winning "Black Hole Sun."
A noticeable number of people of people on arena level appeared to be too young to actually remember the release of Soundgarden's debut album in 1988, so avoiding many of the "oldies" was a wise call.
Although Cornell had greeted the crowd with a good-natured obscenity and used it several times more in his brief comments during the show, Shepherd "saluted" the audience with an angry gesture before leaving the stage. Cornell came out several minutes later for a solo encore, and was later joined by Cameron only. Shepherd was conspicuously absent.
Still, it's unlikely he was missed, or that anyone went home disappointed.