Thanks to Sue Linehan for the photo - see more here

The Birmingham show couldn't help but suffer a little by comparison with the stunning London gig the night before, but it's doubtful any band could pull that kind of performance off two night in succession. This was still a good show though, with Peace Love & Understanding and Call Me A Dog replacing Preaching the End Of The World and Blow Up The Outside World in Chris's solo set, and a particularly ferocious double act from Chris and Corey on Doesn't Remind Me.

Silence The Voices - Original Fire - Let Me Drown - Outshined - Show Me How To Live - Say Hello To Heaven - You Know My Name - No Such Thing - Be Yourself - What You Are - Rusty Cage - Billie Jean - Fell On Black Days - Peace, Love & Understanding - Doesn't Remind Me - Call Me A Dog - Cochise - Spoonman - Arms Around Your Love - Black Hole Sun - Jesus Christ Pose - Seasons/In My Time Of Dying - Burden In My Hand - Wave Goodbye - Slaves and Bulldozers/Whole Lotta Love

by designet

The last time I went to the Academy was NIN in March and, whereas that was FRANTIC(!) this was nice, chilled but still exciting. I think an artist like Chris, who has a large back catalogue of quiet material to play and performes a chilled accoustic set in the middle, has to accept that there won't be a full-on riot/mosh-pit unless theres a full on - uninterrupted - hour of Soundgarden/Audioslave. As soon as you introduce Call Me a Dog, Billie Jean, Say Hello To Heaven ... into a set, the crowd are going to calm the hell down, and lets face it...he started with Silence The Voices...not a particularly bouncy track even if it IS one of the best on the new album....the bassist did an AWESOME job of keeping everyone peaked though. There were many times where the energy was starting to lag and he ran around the stage like a loon- telling everyone to get back into it. He knew the words to EVERY song and shared the stage very well with Chris without trying to upstage him.

Shake n Stir

thanks to JoJo for the photo

Chris Cornell Live Birmingham Academy, 4 September 2007

Despite mixed reviews for the cross-genre solo album CARRY ON released this summer, legendary rock singer Chris Cornell has been gathering widespread critical acclaim for his current solo world tour. His old problems with drink and drugs now firmly behind him, he’s showcasing a voice which seems now to have regained most of its original power and range.

Cornell avoids the big cheesy rock and roll entrance by sauntering onstage already crooning the solemn, Scott Walker-ish ‘Silence The Voices’. On the new record the song doesn’t quite work; its serpentine melody half-buried under a production that threatens to shade towards progrock. Live, its challenge to political evil hits harder, its stark atmosphere slowly seducing a crowd who aren’t quite sure what they’ve come to see. It’s a bold choice of opener, especially as the song’s subtle grandeur fades only gradually into the riotous stomp of Audioslave’s 2006 single ‘Original Fire.’

Material for the two-and-a-half hour set comes from right across Cornell’s twenty-year career. While he successfully nails grandstanding performances of grunge-metal anthems like ‘Black Hole Sun’ and ‘Outshined’, he also challenges audiences with newer, stranger songs and lends some neglected rarities a new lease of life.

‘Seasons’, from the SINGLES movie soundtrack, starts with Cornell cross-legged on the stage flanked by two acoustic guitars: later, it builds into a kind of polyrhythmic world music, trancelike and sinuous, and incorporates a jam on Zeppelin’s ‘In My Time Of Dying.’ Towards the end of the show, he pays tribute to his late friend Jeff Buckley with the ghostly elegy ‘Wave Goodbye.’

A couple of songs from early 90s side project Temple Of The Dog get a surprisingly warm reaction from the youngish crowd, and Cornell chooses to play his controversial cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ solo acoustic. Done this way, it’s less a blues workout and more a country murder ballad, closer to Johnny Cash or Nick Cave than the King Of Pop.

The Audioslave songs are perhaps the least inspiring of the evening – not because they’re badly played or sung, but because there hasn’t yet been time for them to acquire the kind of distance that allows for reinterpretation. Only their ballad ‘Doesn’t Remind Me’ seems to have transformed itself into something new. It’s acquired swing, a skip in its step which develops into a joyously soulful crowd-pleaser of a finish with Cornell’s vocal ad-libs competing with some commanding bass improvisation from powerhouse Corey McCormick.

The most powerful moments of the night come courtesy of the Soundgarden material, in which Cornell seems to have discovered a new delight. ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ still rouses a perilous energy as he stalks the stage, eyes like welding torches, mic stand slung across his shoulders. The hefty ‘Slaves and Bulldozers’ plays host to a incendiary drum solo from Jason Sutter as Cornell weaves in snatches of vocal rhythm. Finally, the band slips into a full-on cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ – great granddaddy of Audioslave’s anthem ‘Cochise’ - which probably stands up to anything you’re likely to hear at the O2 arena in November. Through it all, the contrasting styles of guitarists Peter Thorn and Yogi Lonich conjure a complex but gloriously heavy backdrop for Cornell’s reincarnated voice.

Judging by tonight, it’ll be a long time before this particular icon is ready to retire.

by Clare O'Brien, Shake n Stir

Let Me Drown - (video) thanks so02see

Fell On Black Days - (video) thanks so02see

Slaves & Bulldozers/Whole Lotta Love - (video) thanks so02see

See the Chris Cornell Concerts site for an audio recording of this show

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2007