thanks to Rebecca for the photo - see more here

Despite a strangely conflicted review from local rag the Star Tribune most fan accounts of the show seem to agree that the band were much tighter than on their previous visit to the town in the Spring.

Let Me Drown - Outshined - Show Me How To Live - No Such Thing - Can't Change Me - Say Hello To Heaven - What You Are - Rusty Cage - Sunshower - Billie Jean - Like a Stone - Finally Forever - Fell On Black Days - - Doesn't Remind Me - Cochise - Spoonman - Safe and Sound - Be Yourself - Jesus Christ Pose - The Day I Tried to Live - You Know My Name - Seasons - Black Hole Sun

thanks to Rebecca for the setlist photo

Thanks to Karen for the photos

by Marcia90

I'm still in awe of the show last night! His voice sounded amazing, and hearing him sing Say Hello 2 Heaven was proof of that. He also said he loves playing in venues like the Orpheum, since it had great sound, was clean, old and just like places he used to see bands perform in. They seemed like they were really enjoying themselves, and even played around a little as they left the stage on this thing on the floor in front of one of the guitarists. I have no idea what it was, but there were all sorts of weird sounds and effects happening.

by dandelionfluttergirl

Chris is just amazing. The band seemed more smooth and comfortable than at First Avenue at Easter. Chris looked really great and healthier than I expected. I thought the sound guy could have mixed the sound better, at times seemed distorted and the bass was too loud. Chris has an amazing voice and ...I got to go to the meet and greet. Yeah -can't help but to celebrate. My guest did not snap a photo of Chris and I (they were behind a table) but oh well, I got to meet him and that's pretty special!!!! Thanks to Bill for all the arrangements. Thanks to Chris for hosting the meet and greets. He leaves right away but the band hung out. It was fun to listen to their perspective of things. Ok, I'm a girl and just have to say how absolutely amazing Chris looks - his eyes can melt a soul.

more fan comments on the show at startribune.com/poplife

the band at the meet and greet - thanks dandelionfluttergirl

Star Tribune

Chris Cornell is stuck between hard places

The former Soundgarden and Audioslave singer relied on his classics at an Orpheum show.

Chris Cornell: coming soon to a rib fest, state fair or suburban rock bar near you.

The frontman for two of America's biggest hard-rock bands of the past 15 years, Soundgarden and Audioslave, came to the Orpheum Theatre on Monday with a band of hired guns and a surprisingly long list of familiar songs.

A good time was had by all. Instead of coming off as the rebirth of a solo career, though, Monday's two-hour concert suggested that Cornell might spend the next couple decades coasting on his past couple decades. The three-quarters-full audience got a lot of amped-up but cut-rate nostalgia, cheapened by the fact that none of Cornell's original bandmates were in tow, and none of his new music even came close to the older stuff.

Cornell, 42, is touring behind his second solo CD, "Carry On" (his first was a little-heard 1999 disc, from which he only played one song). The new album finds him awkwardly dabbling in soft-rock and soul balladry. It even includes an embarrassingly dark, brooding cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" that sounded even more melodramatic Monday during a solo acoustic set.

The crowd added to the clumsiness by singing Jackson's falsetto "eee-ooo" cries at the right moments (but wrong show). Tactically wrapped around the new material was a criss-crossing cross-section of Cornell classics. Two Soundgarden tracks, "Let Me Drown" and "Outshined," opened the show, followed by one Audioslave cut, "Show Me How to Live." That formula kept up through the pre-encore finale of "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Be Yourself," the latter of which came off as one of two swipes toward Audioslave. The other came right before "What You Are."This is a song about breaking away from something that sucks, and doing what you want to do," Cornell said (never mind the irony of him saying it before one of the six Audioslave songs on the set list).

Cornell's pick-up band looked like a group of guys he snagged from a Guitar Center. They were able and eager, but didn't mesh into anything special. One especially big problem was the fact that Cornell's undeniably powerful voice -- mostly spot-on Monday -- was always pushed front-and-center in the sonic mix, and thus buried the ferocious six-string shredding that defined such songs as "Rusty Cage" and "Cochise." But hey, no one would probably notice that at a rib fest anyway.

By Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Say Hello 2 Heaven (extract) - thanks YearOfMusic

Show Me How To Live (extract) - thanks PlanetSuz

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2007