Chris Cornell Live Review - Glasgow Academy

CHRIS CORNELL strolls into Glasgow on this midsummer's night for a rare UK solo performance, fresh on the heels of his band Audioslave's dismantling.  While the newly reformed and touring Rage Against The Machine may be setting the music world alight, a night with Cornell's proving pretty popular too despite the £25 ticket cost.  Squeezing the American rock crooner's fans into the Carling Academy is like fitting Daphne Broon into a Borat swimsuit - it's not quite bursting at the seams, but it's warm and sweaty and none too comfortable.

 

In the upstairs balcony, far above the rabid throng of Soundgarden t-shirts, pint-in-hand punters are all set for a great view and the sound of a voice once described as "one of alt-rock's most elastic instruments."  Buoyed by fervent applause, Cornell emerges and eases into "Let Me Drown" from grunge-pioneers Soundgarden, before ripping into the pulse-charging Audioslave number "Show Me How To Live".  The grunge God's voice is in fine form, but there's good reason this is billed as "Chris Cornell" with no mention of his 4-piece band...while not as disposable as a Guns N Roses cast, we're certainly not screaming for a guitarist of former Buckcherry anonymity and a bassist
that we couldn't later pick out of a police lineup.  "Show Me How To Live" is supposed to have a fluttering overload of
wah-wah soloing that drops your jaw...tonight the guitarist's attempt can only be filed under 'mince'.  It's a big ask to fill Tom Morello's scruffy shoes, but Mr A. N. Other attacks the strings with exactly fuck all conviction.

 

However, we are treated to better value for money and variety than you'd ever find in a bag of Pick N' Mix...from Audioslave numbers into treasured cuts from 1991's Temple of the Dog, the 'Casino Royale' theme song "You Know My Name" to solo stuff old and new, including the Sabbath-esque "No Such Thing".  At his best, Cornell takes anger, fear, love or any theme he turns his hand to and boils down the raw emotion to the sounds of a guitar and one man's voice.  There's almost nothing he can't do, and he sets out to bloody well prove that.

 

Soundgarden classics "Rusty Cage" and "Jesus Christ Pose" hit us like a Pulp Fiction adrenaline shot...we can't help but sit up and take notice of songs so instantly singable, headbangable, moshable, and it sends us into raptures.  Then Cornell sits down and crosses his legs while the guitarist grabs a stool, they change tack entirely, and do the beautiful, pensive "Seasons" to keep us on our toes and send us reaching for the lighters.  Brilliant.  "Spoonman" is a highlight of the night, "Billie Jean" is a Michael Jackson cover given the wistful Leonard Cohen treatment, before "Black Hole Sun" is the chorus-echoed anthem that wraps up the first encore.

 

We finish on "Slaves and Bulldozers", the place goes mental one last time, and after 2 and a half hours of 20 years' worth of heart-racing Cornell classics, it feels like a cuddle under the duvets and a cigarette would be more appropriate than fighting for a taxi in the cold.

 

Graeme Johnston.

 

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