Have to say I'm with Joeypants, I read this thread expecting (at best) mediocrity ................. but that live gig at the showbox is nowhere near as bad as it's painted here. Yes, Cornell does strain himself slightly at times, but this is their first gig together in a long time and they still have a lot of rehearsal to get through. You have to cut the guy some slack also, he's 45yrs old and simply won't have the same vocal power as when he was 25 - no singer does. He still manages to hit notes that many other singers will simply never reach.
For the most part, I thought the band nailed the performance and judging by the crowd reaction and online reviews, everyone else thought so too.
Cornell also gets a lot of flack for the musical choices he's made in the last 10 years. As a Soundgarden fan since 1993 odd, I can't say I've enjoyed all of his recent releases, though I did like some of them. But you know what? Kudos to the guy for looking outside the box. Many musicians just keep churning out the same material for 20,30,40 years ............. regurgitating the stuff that got them there in the first place. Cornell at least had the balls to go solo, to back to a band, to go solo again, and to flit between hard rock, pop and whatever other genre you could pigeonhole his sound in. He got a lot of criticism but at least the guy likes variety and is brave enough to experiment - I'm sure it's not easy releasing music when you know it's going to piss off a core selection of your fans, even though it may grab you some new ones.
