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Soundgarden Warm Up for Lollapalooza With Chicago Club Gig

Soundgarden's Chris CornellGary Miller, FilmMagic

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.

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Robert

soundgarden could'nt cqrry zep's jock strap. not even judas priest

August 09 2010 at 4:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David S.

Chris -- Soundgarden was on their way to being Zepplin? Please....they are an OK band, nothing exceptional. Otherwise, we would still be hearing about them all the time -- only hear about them when these tours come up. Get a life.

August 08 2010 at 4:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to David S.'s comment
Jake

Actually, Chris is right. If Soundgarden never broke up, they would have been still one of the biggest bands today. At the time, people worshiped them because they were such a revolutionary group of musicians. They were part of a wave of excellent music that took the 90s by storm. They still have a massive fan base much like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. The only reason people don't talk about them, or any 90s music what so ever, is because the major media networks only talk about the crap that's out today.

August 08 2010 at 5:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Robert

soundgarden sucks. he should have stayed in audioslave

August 08 2010 at 11:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Robert's comment
ChrisTopher

Hey Robert......glad 2 see U don't know sh*t!!!! Soundgarden were well on their way of being the ZEPPELIN of my generation. Heavy, melodic, artistic rock that could groove as well as slam U in your face. Audioslave was "good enough", RAGE with actual singing, but better than RAGE or SOUNDGARDEN as seperate entities....U have no brain cells!

August 08 2010 at 12:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TowerTone

...except for maybe this dude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_DeLeo

and of course this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Grohl

which completes my Dream Band with Cornell/Cantrell

August 08 2010 at 10:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
deadlyzens

other them Alice in Chains, SOUNDGARDEN was the only band that had any talent that came out of the 90'smusic scene.Chris Cornell is the best rock singer in the last 25 yrs.
I'm glad to see they are playing together again,maybe we'll get another c-d.

August 08 2010 at 10:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to deadlyzens's comment
Bryan

Really? Have you forgotten about, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Tool, STP, Days of the New, etc.
But, I do agree with your statement about Chris C.

August 08 2010 at 10:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JustToSay

Wish I could have been there. So Sad...

August 08 2010 at 8:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply