I saw Soundgarden with some buds last night, at UIC Pavilion. Great show! The band looked great and sounded awesome. I've never seen a band at UIC, which always seemed conceptually like a bigger venue than it actually is, although that made it perfect, that right blend of size and intimacy that can make a show great. I'm all sore and hoarse from the festivities. This was the first show I've been to in years that actually had moshing, so I'm glad I wore my venerable steel toe boots; it was nice to see some actual crowd enthusiasm, since so many shows have kids just standing there like statues. Not last night; it was lots of thrown elbows and shoulders, putting the boot in, drunken hooligans and ditchweed, tough cookies and bellowing bruisers.
Even though it was a reprise set they played, covering their older songs, it was great, just the same, and they rocked every one of their tunes. Cornell said they're working on a new album, which should be out next year, and that they would certainly come back to Chicago, etc. I broke my usual rule of not spending more than $20 to see ANYBODY in order to catch Soundgarden, but had no regrets about it. It was definitely worth it. Somebody filmed one of the quieter moments of the show, "4th of July," below...
I'm hoping somebody filmed when the crowd went apeshit, during some of the other songs. Cornell really worked the crowd nicely, seemed to genuinely enjoy himself.
