CHRIS CORNELL @ Metropolis

By Rebecca Munroe - Charts & Crafts - 11/23/2008

In a split second it looked like it could be 1992 when Chris Cornell took the stage Sunday night, what with the grey jeans and grunge like beige and grey plaid shirt he was wearing.  Yet the song he started with, “Part of Me,” from his new, Timbaland produced Scream Album, is anything but grunge. 

The new music the former Soundgarden frontman is experimenting with may sound poppy, but his voice is anything but that.  When this pioneer of grunge from the late 80’s and early 90’s sang any song that night, it was with one of the most pure and profound rock voices around right now.  This was never more evident then when looking around at the less than packed Metropolis crowd, when he played anything from his new album.  They were just not buying it. 

“Good to be back in Montreal,” he screamed early on, as he led into “You know My Name” from the James Bond flick, Casino Royale and the crowd loved it. However it wasn’t until he played “Outshined” from Soundgarden’s 1991 album, Badmotorfinger, that the crowd really went ballistic.

Cornell really did an amazing job at mixing it up throughout his show.  He played music from all over his career.  A prime example of this was a third of the way through, when we heard early Soundgarden tunes such as and “Rusty Cage” as well as the Temple of the Dog smash hit “Hunger Strike” mixed in with “Arms around Your Love,” from his 2007 solo album Carry On and Audioslave’s “Show Me How to Live.” It was easy to see what the crowd wanted during this set.  Their love for Cornell rests with the rock sound.

Midway through, the band left the stage and Cornell picked up his acoustic guitar. “Hi, turn the house lights on so that I can see the people,” he politely asked as he serenaded the crowd with his popular version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”  It was at this moment that you felt his love for the fans and his craft.  Throughout the show, he gave you a feeling that he was jamming in his basement with his best friends all around.

The only disappointing moment of the show was when he played “Like a Stone” from the 2002 Audioslave self-titled album, acoustically.  It just wasn’t the same without that amazing guitar rift.  

This charismatic and nothing but sexy rock star ended the show with “Spoonman,” only to come back and wow the crowd with an uncanny resemblance to Robert Plant in singing Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” the first in a three encore set. It only proved that the rock in Chris Cornell is not going anywhere, anytime soon.

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