By Brian Ives
“Thank you very much!” Chris Cornell said to an ecstatic crowd at New York City’s Beacon Theatre a few songs into the second of two consecutive sold out shows at the venue. Smiling, he asked warmly “How are you doing?” before launching into another classic from his catalog, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.
This scenario, which took place at Cornell’s show last night (October 19) would have been difficult to predict in the ’90s, during Soundgarden‘s commercial heyday. Back then, guitar-heavy alternative bands that combined metal, punk and (although they didn’t like to acknowledge it) arena rock ruled the airwaves and MTV. And, back then, the media just couldn’t get enough of them. Yet Cornell (and his bandmates, and most of his peers) could not have seemed less happy about it. When you went to see Soundgarden live, you didn’t get the impression that he was grateful that you were there or that he cared how you were doing. And he didn’t smile much.
But over the past few years, like his friends in Pearl Jam, it seems Chris Cornell has learned to stop worrying and enjoy the fortunate position that he’s in: he’s healthy, he looks as good as he did in the ’90s and sounds even better (at least when he performs). He can pull huge crowds, both with the reunited Soundgarden and on his own.
Related: Interview: Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell Looks Back on Superunknown
He’s been doing his acoustic “Songbook” tours for about six years; at the intimate shows, he celebrates his entire career, drawing from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and his solo records. But this is the first time he’s done it with a brand new solo album that needs no defending: while his excellent 2015 effort Higher Truth made less of a splash than 2009’s Timbaland-produced Scream, the newer album is much less controversial among his fans. And the album versions feature sparse arrangements that lend themselves to the acoustic format.
(Maria Ives for Radio.com)
Between the three bands that Cornell has been a member of, it’s easy to overlook his solo career, but his setlist leaned heavily on it, a reminder of the gems that he’s created on his own. He opened with “Misery Chain,” a song he wrote for the the film 12 Years a Slave. His performance showed that he wouldn’t be limited by anyone else’s perception of what a “solo acoustic” show should be: he didn’t even play guitar; instead he played a record on a turntable with a pre-recorded instrumental backing track. Other times during the night, he looped his performances so that he was his own backing band (current arena headliner Ed Sheeran uses a similar technique; Cornell has been doing it in his solo shows before Sheeran became a crossover star).
From there, he strapped on an acoustic, and went into one of his new songs, “Before We Disappear,” followed by “Can’t Change Me,” the lead single from his solo debut, the recently reissued Euphoria Morning. From there, he played a song he said he’d written for Johnny Cash, noting that Cash didn’t record it: “Cleaning My Gun.”
He was joined by multi-instrumentalist Brian Gibson for about half the show, including Higher Truth‘s lead single, “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart.” Then he delved into his band history for a moving take on Soundgarden’s “Fell on Black Days.”
That was followed by what was easily the sweetest part of the evening: he was joined by his young daughter Toni on stage. He’d mentioned that he’d recently performed with her at an assembly at her school, and it made him more nervous than opening for Metallica in front of 40,000 people. So he had her return the favor, and the Cornell duo sang Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” to the delight of the audience. Of course, the kid has an amazing voice.
After that was the Temple of the Dog classic, “Say Hello 2 Heaven” his tribute to his former roommate and Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood. From there, paying tribute to the late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley, he covered Mad Season‘s “River of Deceit” (which he performed in Staley’s place at an ad hoc Mad Season reunion earlier this year).
Related: Chris Cornell “Open” to Reunite With Audioslave
He veered through his entire career through the rest of the set, playing Soundgarden songs (“The Day I Tried To Live,” “Like Suicide” for a fan who had been requesting it since the prior night’s show), Temple of the Dog (“Hunger Strike”), Audioslave (“Like a Stone,” “Doesn’t Remind Me,” the lesser known “Wide Awake”) and his solo career (“Seasons,” “Sweet Euphoria”).
Related: Soundgarden: Working on New Material, Despite Chris Cornell’s Solo Album
But some of the highlights were the oddities: a version of Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage” that was influenced by Johnny Cash’s cover (being covered by Cash, he said, was one of the highlights of his career), his mashup cover of U2‘s “One” with Metallica‘s “One” (an interesting sounding concept, it doesn’t quite work as well in practice) and his rendition of the Beatles‘ “A Day in the Life.”
(Maria Ives for Radio.com)
He started the encore with one of Soundgarden’s darkest moments, “Like Suicide.” But he ended with the title track from Higher Truth. Given that death and sorrow haunt many of the songs that he sang throughout the night—even the covers are either about, or by, people who died—it was nice to hear him sing “Come let’s sit in the sun/Feel the world spin around/As the birds fly overhead/Can’t you hear the waves/Can’t you feel the rain/As it falls upon your face.” The guy isn’t likely to go all sunshine and rainbows any time soon, but those lyrics offered a bit of light; it was a nice contrast to the darkness in many of his songs. The lyrics also offered a clue, perhaps, to why he seems to enjoy performing a bit more than he did decades ago. Maybe it’s being a proud dad, maybe he’s just at a better place in his personal life than he was in the ’90s. But he’s learned to enjoy the rain, instead of letting it ruin his day. But whatever the case may be, that song, his latest album, and this show, all give the impression that Chris Cornell has found his groove as a solo artist, and he’ll likely to be in for a long time to come (at least between Soundgarden projects). And who knows, maybe his next band will be with his daughter.
