Chris Cornell concert, 10/30/07, Dallas

At House of Blues.

Chris Cornell is nothing if not a survivor. The venerable 43 year old lead singer of the now defunct bands Soundgarden and Audioslave has been making music at a high level for nearly 20 years, scoring a popular hit at regular intervals along the way. I have always been a big Soundgarden fan, and think they are extremely underrated as band. Audioslave (Cornell + the musical members of Rage Against the Machine) was great while it lasted. Recently, Cornell has ventured into solo work that is solid, if not quite as good as his work with those bands.

After Dentist provided me with a copy of a great acoustic performance of his featuring all of his hits, plus covers of Billie Jean and Cry for Freedom, I put this concert on my list. Appraiser joined me for a surprisingly good show at the very pleasing House of Blues. Its nice to go to a venue that was made for rock concerts, not shoehorned into a warehouse or a theater.

Cornell walked out unpretentiously right at 9:00 looking like a tall CBGB Bob Dylan, with too tight jeans, big boots and a Blood on the Tracks hairdo. There was no stage decor, save a small "Cornell Ave." street sign that looked like it had been stolen from the street of the same name in Highland Park. The first 2 songs were from his new album, and were good, but the crowd didn't get into it until the third song, the Soundgarden classic Outshined. I was especially pleased with this song, since it was criminally omitted from the show I attended in 1994 at the Fair Park Music Hall. After that song, Appraiser and I looked at eachother with sort of a 'whoa' expression, because Cornell's voice was amazingly strong after so many years of singing. More about that later.

The next few songs were Show Me How to Live (Audioslave), Say Hello to Heaven (Temple of the Dog), Be Yourself (Audioslave), and Rusty Cage (Soundgarden). This patch was some of the best live music I've heard in years: real, authentic rock and roll played well and straightforward. Cornell then donned a Mother Love Bone t-shirt someone had thrown on stage and played 3 or 4 new songs, and then Doesn't Remind Me and Like a Stone (both Audioslave) and then Billie Jean. This was the most impressive stretch because of Cornell's voice. The range and strength is truly amazing. It is clear, never off pitch and forceful, all seemingly without any effort. During his acoustic set it was just him and a guitar and he was overpowering the room (in a good way). The closing set and encore were a little too loud and 'thrashy' for me, except Black Hole Sun and Spoonman (Soundgarden).

All in all, the concert was great, and my respect for Cornell as a musician is exponentially higher than before the concert.