photos by Kevin Estrada

American Idol winner David Cook - who famously performed Chris's version of Billie Jean in the competition - was in the crowd for this "Scream" launch show at the House of Blues on Hollywood's Sunset Strip.

Intro - Part Of Me - Time - Sweet Revenge - Get Up - Ground Zero - Never Far Away - Take Me Alive - Long Gone - Scream - Enemy - Other Side Of Town - Climbing Up the Walls - Watch Out - Two Drink Minimum

by cradle88

Now I have to admit that I have been one of the Timbaland skeptics but I kept an open mind because FFS it's Chris Cornell and I have loved this man and his music for years and I'm not going to write him off for experimenting.

Chris and the band (plus two additional DJs, sorry I don't know their names) played what I believe is every song off the new album, which were all linked as one song. I apologise that I don't know all the names and the order but he played Ground Zero, Long Gone and that funky one I liked (lyrics go something like "Little girl, do what you want from me"??) and I swear, for the first 4/5 songs, Chris and co sounded really good. The songs worked live and were really funky and the band (especially Corey) looked like they were really enjoying playing the new songs! They were very danceable.

I have to admit though that after the 5th song or so, myself and the rest of the crowd were flagging as it did get a bit long (as there were hardly any breaks between the songs) and loads of people were actually starting to leave, as they realized that Chris was not going to play any old stuff. THANKFULLY, the encosre was Black Hole Sun which injected some much needed energy into the crowd.

We weren't allowed to take pictures but I managed to sneak in this shot. Chris' daughter was in the balcony and it was really cute as he waved to her at one point. I also spotted David Cook in the VIP section!

thanks to cradle88 for the photo

Bottom line: The new album has its moments and tunes and I will definitely give it a try. And I will definitely see Chris again should he come to London but I will admit that I will be very disappointed if he doesn't play any old stuff.

After a long career of gritty alt rock, Chris Cornell threw fans a curveball by teaming up with Midas touch producer Timbaland for his latest album, Scream. The odd couple hit Hollywood's House of Blues on October 25th to unveil the sonic plot twist before it hits store shelves. We were there—cameras in hand—to see the rocker's big hooks and the hitmaker's bombastic production collide:

Read Kevin Estrada's photo recap of the show here at ArtistDirect

Time (extract) - thanks cwdowns65

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2008