It’s been a while since Chris Cornell and co’s last appearance on Irish shores. As a sizeable crowd filed into the Docklands venue, many, no doubt, were looking to recreate those heady early ‘90s days when American alt-rock ruled the airwaves.
Despite being a member of grunge’s ‘Big Three’ along with Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Soundgarden were always the outsiders. Musically closer to the sensibilities of classic ‘70s rock and early metal, their appeal was relatively mainstream. Cornell’s booming vocals and Kim Thayil’s blues-inflected riffing were heavily indebted to some of rock’s greatest luminaries, Robert Plant and Tony Iommi amongst them, and 1994’s hugely successful Superunknown momentarily granted them superstar status.
However, tonight’s set rarely exceeds mid-tempo and despite the crowd’s initial enthusiasm, an atmosphere of near-inertia begins to permeate the venue. Omitting the blistering ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ from Badmotorfinger or epic crowd-pleaser ‘Black Hole Sun’ was a poor call, limiting the band’s scope to vary the show’s monotonous texture.
Regrettably, they weren’t helped by muddy sound, Thayil’s subtle guitar prodding often swamped by the low-end fuzz of Ben Shepherd’s bass and Matt Cameron’s excellent time-keeping. There’s no doubting the band’s commitment to their craft and Cornell does his level best to connect with the masses in a laidback manner, but both the material and its presentation feels dated.
The garish projections, varying from kaleidoscopic sequences to an animated eye seem stuck in a ‘90s time-warp, like a series of interstitials for MTV’s once great grunge/indie showpiece, Alternative Nation. The older numbers garner a more positive response from a crowd light on younger faces, especially ‘Spoonman’ and a passionate rendition of the excellent ‘The Day I Tried To Live’, but any momentum is relinquished by an over reliance on the band’s more introspective material.
The aggressive riffing power of ‘Non-State Actor’ from last year’s King Animal briefly reawakens the crowd and closer ‘Superunknown’ raises an approving chorus of cheers as the band depart. However, the choice of encores is nothing short of bizarre. ‘Rusty Cage’ (covered by Johnny Cash) kicks things off in magnificent fashion, blasting forth and causing an outbreak of moshing in the pit, only to be followed by a downbeat one-two of ‘Like Suicide’ and ‘Beyond The Wheel’.