Chris Cornell @ Perth ConcertHall, Perth (10/10/2011)

Wed 12th Oct, 2011 in Gig Reviews

This year marked the twentieth anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. It also marked the twentieth anniversary of when Seattle was put on the musical map through this little thing the media labelled grunge. Before Nirvana and long before grunge, the sound had already been made through bands such as Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. They were the older kids that helped to inspire Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. So, when Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden, announced that he was going to come to Australia to play a songbook tour, those that grew up listening to his voice through bands like Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog, as well as the more recent Audioslave turned up in droves for the first of two Perth shows at the Concert Hall.

There is one thing that is for certain. Chris Cornell is one of the greatest singers of our generation. And tonight he showed why he earned that moniker through his acoustic renditions of Soundgarden’s Outshined, Black Hole Sun, The Day I Tried To Live and Burden In My Hand. Towards the end of Soundgarden, Cornell’s voice was haggard, completely worn out, so he took a break. A few years later, he joined forces with Rage Against The Machine’s rhythm section to form Audioslave. Once again, Cornell’s voice took it’s toll at the end of the band’s life. Tonight, his voice was at its pinnacle. He proved that he still had it and sent a flutter of anticipation through fans around the room about the upcoming Soundgarden shows as part of the Big Day Out festival tour this summer.

The stage was laden with seven guitars, five mic’s and a bright red vintage telephone that sat by his side for the entire show. The phone was never used and judging by YouTube footage of his past shows, it’s the set that he uses all of the time. Also, only three or four of the guitars were used. Cornell commented and applauded the Concert Hall for such an amazing sounding room, even calling it one of the best venues he’s played in. As to why they don’t use it more often for shows escapes me as it truly is an excellent venue. And hey, if Cornell says that then who can argue.

You may not like Audioslave but this show showed off the songwriting in fine form. Cornell on an acoustic guitar and his voice doing what it does best made for the perfect setting to hear those songs. Wide Awake was the stand out track from that period by far.

Temple of the Dog’s Hunger Strike was met with much jubilation. Perth fans had waited years to see this song live and they had almost given up on ever hearing it after the band made it clear that they wouldn’t be reforming. This was the closest they’ll ever get. Temple of the Dog was made up of Cornell and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready and Matt Cameron (also of Soundgarden) in tribute to their late friend and Cornell’s housemate Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone and Malfunkshun who died of a heroin overdose in 1990. Later on in the set, Cornell accidentally picked up the wrong guitar and started playing Hunger Strike again to laughs and cheers from those that couldn’t believe he was about to play it again. He stopped, rambled something about Ben Shepherd’s (from Soundgarden) tuning style and launched into Seasons from the Cameron Crowe directed movie Singles, which paid homage to the Seattle sound.

Together with the songs he wrote and recorded through his bands, Cornell added some covers. Most notably The Beatles; A Day In The Life, John Lennon’s Imagine and a hauntingly sultry version of When I’m Down. He also turned Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean into a stripped back loungey track that was pretty much unrecognisable next to the original. He also played Can’t Change Me from his solo album Euphoria Morning which he wrote with Shneider and Alain Johannes also from Queens of the Stone Age and Eleven.

After just over two hours, Chris Cornell left the stage. Fans who were expecting an acoustic Soundgarden show left disappointed, as the rest of us wondered if it was possible to get tickets to the next show.