Soundgarden Warm Up for Lollapalooza With Chicago Club Gig

When the Lollapalooza lineup was revealed months ago, arguably the biggest news was that Soundgarden would be playing their first show in 12 years. Since the announcement, the Seattle grunge vets played a secret show in their hometown of Seattle and, Thursday night, around 1,500 lucky fans got a preview of the band's Sunday headlining set when Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd took the stage at the Vic Theater.

Coming out at 9:45PM and opening with 'Searching With My Good Eye Closed,' the quartet quickly kicked the crowd into overdrive with a raucous 'Spoonman.' The 1994 hit prompted screaming along and an appropriate boatload of air guitar in a venue peppered with 'Guitar Hero' posters on the doors and walls.

As much as Cornell has been appropriately dubbed one of the great voices in rock, Soundgarden is a musical unit, one that is as comfortable with Kim Thayil's metal-like riffs as they are with Cornell's crooning on radio-friendly hits like 'Black Hole Sun' and 'Fell on Black Days,' which was one of the highlights of their nearly two-hour set.

Both styles, the metal vibe and melodic rock, got a fair amount of play as the group delved into their whole catalog, going all the way back to the beginning. 'Flower' was featured from their debut LP 'Ultramega OK' and their second album, 'Louder Than Love,' was represented by 'Ugly Truth,' 'Gun' and 'Get On The Snake.' Their final studio album, 'Down on the Upside,' got some play as well via tracks such as 'Blow Up the Outside World' and 'Burden in My Hand.'

It was an impressive and aggressive stroll down memory lane, one that will grow even louder Sunday night with tens of thousands fans screaming along as the band closes out Lollapalooza.