Chris Cornell - Dallas, March 28, 2009

At House of Blues.

What a difference a chair makes. After being blown away at 2007's Chris Cornell concert at the same venue, this one was a bit of a letdown. For starters, Appraiser and I had seats in 2007, but were standing in 2009 - which meant that the 2 hours between the end of opener Outernational's set and the beginning of Cornell's set were excruciating for my legs and tolerance of other concertgoers. His voice is still amazing, but a weird recent album (produced by Timbaland) plus a bad setlist and a way too hammy backing band left me unsatisfied. Click below for more Cornell:

For starters, there must have been a delay because the lights were brought down 3 or 4 times during the dreaded 2 hour interval, only to go back up - resulting in the very rare booing before a concert. Once onstage, Cornell's new hairdo was reminiscent of a nerdy female extra on the 90's version of Beverly Hills 90210. He launched into a couple of okayish songs from his most recent album and then killed me with too obscure early Soundgarden tracks. Only after 45 minutes did he start hitting his stride with me, singing Hunger Strike, Be Yourself, Billy Jean, Outshined, Fell On Black Days (best of concert), and a medley of great songs (Stairway to Heaven, Sunday Bloody Sunday and All Along the Watchtower). He also did the Soundgarden song from the Singles soundtrack, another highlight.

The backing band was super goofy and way too involved in the show - my favorite parts were when it was just Cornell and the guitar. Oh, and I realize that I am too old to stand for 4 hours.