Soundgarden are back.

A belated update on Soundgarden as time has been against me and I actually have more posts that I also wanted to get written but Soundgarden had to be first.
Have I ever doubted them? Well, actually yes. Hyde Park was a welcome return and a solid performance but Soundgarden don't translate as well as they should to a larger audience. I think Chris Cornell is a gentle soul and his friendliness is soft, at odds with the hard edge of Soundgarden but he carries his goodwill like a torch and it translates well in more intimate surroundings, so they came across as aloof at Hyde Park.
Now Shepherds Bush Empire was a whole new page in their history. We wanted it, they wanted it and together it was a night that couldn't fail. I've been on these kind of nights before and they've nearly always failed. It's abit like odds of 1,000,000 to 1 to fail, they always will.....except tonight.
Tonight was special. I had a limited ticket along with everyone else. We had all heard the new album and had all been blown away, Soundgarden were back and as good as they ever were, all they had to do was deliver.
They sauntered on stage and kicked off with a new song, "Been away for too long" and we were off and running. It was hard, intense and uncompromising, a night that took me back 20 years but gave me an older and better band that started looking 20 years younger at about the halfway point. I could see echoes through time, poses that hadn't been thrown in 16 years, notes that hadn't been played in context for even longer and it all felt right.

The crowd were loud, leary and ready for them and the band matched us, beating us around the head with new songs and old songs, "Blackhole Sun" "Rusty Cage" "Incessant Mace" "Outshined" "Rowing" "Worse Dreams", it was amazing. They didn't play "Jesus Christ Pose" a bit of a shock but having seen it at Hyde Park, I was OK with that.
Soundgarden are back. The live show was as good as it will ever be, the musicianship was spot on and solid, the voice was amazing, as usual and in such a small venue they came across and you left with the feeling of camaraderie, we were all in it together.

The new album is brilliant. It isn't immediate but it does grow on you very quickly. I can't stop listening to it and couple that together with the show and it has left me a bit of a mess, evangelising like a teenage boy on his latest fad although this fad is 20 years old. Mind you I am living with an album and two gigs that I never thought I'd see again and my children have witnessed the band of my youth and the real legacy of Seattle, forget Nirvana, it's Hendrix and Soundgarden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMriZomnS2o&feature=relmfu

....getting excited about Soundgarden all over again.

Back in '92, myself, my girlfriend of the time (now my wife) and some friends, saw Soundgarden at the Town and Country Club (now the Forum) in London, on the "Bad Motor Finger" tour. It was just as they were about to break, the gig was sold out and it was a great night.
Chris Cornell became my hero, a real ROCK GOD, he had the looks, the voice and the band, here was someone I could aspire to, except I didn't have any of his attributes. I was never a musician, I was the listener searching for a talent that despite repeated attempts was never a musical talent. I couldn't sing, couldn't write a song and I have since found out that in my home town, I was a bit of a rock god but didn't know it. That is the story of my life...."I didn't know it"... all the various things that I could have done, been or gotten in to trouble for but didn't know it at the time. I guess that means that you miss some of lifes adventures but on a positive note it meant that I was never really an ego, I wasn't the "in crowd" I was just a known face and friend.
As the great listener, I was always picking up on new bands and Soundgarden were one of those bands, probably the only one that I still follow.
16 years since their last album, there are on the verge of releasing a new beast. I have pre-ordered it and because I did that, I was given access to a code that gave me dibs on tickets to see them tonight at Shepherds Bush Empire. There are certain gigs that become legendary for those in the know, Marilyn Manson at Reading in 2001, Iron Maiden at Donnington in '88 and smaller gigs like Iron Maiden performing as Charlotte and the Harlots in a school hall or Pearljam playing at the ULU on the "10" tour. This is a major band, fresh from headlining a festival, playing a tiny venue on the outskirts of London. It is minutely close to being legendary.
The pre-release was open for 2 days to those that had pre-ordered the album and then the tickets would go on general release. I called in first thing and got my 2 ticket allocation at a cost of £40 per ticket. I was expecting £20 but was reminded that that was the cost 20 years ago...the last time I saw them. The tickets were all gone by the close of play that day. I am taking one of the friends that came with me 20 years ago, it seems right and fitting as he also bought the pre-release album but lucked out on the tickets.
So I am in the midst of getting excited about Soundgarden all over again. I must be too old by now surely? The inner child still has those rebellious feelings but I am no longer sure what rebellious is, it became mainstream when I wasn't looking. It is funny how things change but remain the same. I am older, I can see that in the mirror but I am none the wiser. I still listen to the same old stuff but have bolstered it with the music of my Father and of his Father (The Andrews Sisters and the Chordettes have just made it on to my phone). Rather than going forward, my musical taste is in regression to the extent that I am uncertain about Soundgarden releasing a new album, after all, I am still listening to the older albums, why do we need a new one? It was then that it hit me, rebellion is moving backwards not forwards. Listening to easy listening or old time rock and roll is far more rebellious than listening to My Chemical Romance or Paramore. Rock is now mainstream and image wise it can't move anywhere that hasn't already been done so what's left? Let me tell you, Andy Williams and Ella Fitzgerald will be the new rebellion.

PS. Just heard the new Soundgarden album, god it's good to have them back!!