thanks to richie for the photo

A great finish to this leg of the tour, in an intimate venue within this Nevada resort. Unusualy for a rock show, there was no crash barrier, and the audience were close to the stage (and at one point, broke Chris's micstand for him!) One crowd member gave Chris a vintage Mother Love Bone T-shirt which he stopped to look at for some time. The acoustic set included Led Zeppelin's Thank You and an acoustic version of Audioslave's Dandelion.

Intro - Let Me Drown - Outshined - Show Me How To Live - No Such Thing - You Know My Name - Hunger Strike - Be Yourself - What You Are - Rusty Cage - Hotel California - Thank You - All Night Thing - Preaching The End Of The Word - Call Me A Dog - Dandelion - I Am The Highway - Doesn't Remind Me - Cochise - Pushin' Forward Back - Arms Around Your Love - Spoonman - Black Hole Sun - Jesus Christ Pose - Out Of Exile - Sunshower - Like A Stone - Slaves And Bulldozers/4th July/Whole Lotta Love.

by NestaMoon

I was at the Reno show last night, and it was outstanding! It was General Admission, and most people were having drinks in the various booths in the back so the floor wasn't very crowded, it was my best concert positioning ever. The crowd was great, no pushing, and a lot of dancing.

Chris sounded fantastic, he walked out into the crowd during Be Yourself and he played Hotel California (has he played this before?) during his acoustic set. He also made a funny commentary about the similarities between GW Bush and Charles Manson. As great as the music was, a highlight for me was seeing how much fun everyone on stage was having, there was a lot of joking around and guitar picks were being thrown all over. I've been sitting in front of my computer all day wishing I loved my work as much as they all do.

chris headbanging: thanks to paul dyer for the photo

by Laurie

Show last night was awesome!!! NO BARRIER!!! I literally had to sometimes move my hands so Chris wouldn’t stomp on them.You KNOW I loved that!!! I love being so close you can hear his shoes clack when he stomps them down. It was such a strange night for me…happy to be there, but bummed because it was the final show.

by richie

Amazing. GA and no one in the front so front row center. Probably did 25 songs...Pushin Forward Back, Slaves and Bulldozers, Call me a Dog. Took my wife's Mother Love Bone shirt and just gazed at the 1989 photo of Andy and the rest of the gang for a moment. Real emotion coming from a superstar....literally the best show I'd seen in a long long time. Yes i was involved with the mike stand incident during jesus christ pose. Then he just went with it even though we broke the stand. Just carrying it around...maybe happy he wasn't anchored by the stand. Yes, i got a picture of him with the mlb shirt. Unbelievable pic. I got it on my myspace pics page. Search "rich" within 10 miles of south lake tahoe, ca, 96150. How did you guys like it when he just easily let himself down in the crowd, no security, and just milled around singing and then just made his way back to the stage...the crowd just letting him though with no hassles. Too cool.

thanks to richie for the photos

Paul and friend with Chris at the meet-and-greet

Reno Gazette-Journal

Cornell shows off pipes in concert

He’s probably best known as the voice of Soundgarden, the noisiest rock band to come out of Seattle during the city’s fertile 1990s era. But Chris Cornell, who played to a crowd of about 1,300 Sunday at the Grand Sierra Resort Theater, took two-and-a-half hours to remind the audience that he also had a hand in three other projects: Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and his own solo songs.

Cornell, who surrounded himself with four musicians well-schooled in Cornell’s catalog, opened the show with a short intro featuring just his band before taking the spare stage himself and launching into Soundgarden’s “Let Me Drown,” from their 1994 breakthrough “Superunknown.”

Photo by Court Leve, Grand Sierra magazine

At first, Cornell seemed to hold back, finding his pace and volume among the band’s mix. But a few songs in, on Audioslave’s “Show Me How to Live,” he was full on. Six songs in on Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike,” Cornell’s pipes were open full throttle. “Hunger Strike” is possibly the song where Cornell’s range is most impressive. You probably remember the song — the one from the early ’90s that teamed him with Eddie Vedder and other Seattle rockers in a one-off album where he sings “I don’t mind stealing bread” — make that wails “I don’t mind stealing bread.” There were points in the song where he sounded like an angry wildcat. And at 43 years old, his voice sounded as strong as it did nearly 20 years ago.

The night was not without genuine displays of humor and showmanship. Breaking into Audioslave’s “Be Yourself,” Cornell remarked at the vast stage he had to work, and took a spot leaning against a speaker stack at far stage left. A moment later he was at the opposite end of the stage stepping down into the crowd, snaking his way through groping fans and climbing on tables, which had the odd appearance of an entire section of audience turned around to watch the show. Before the end of the song, Cornell took a spot with the audience in front of the stage, perched in front of his guitarist where Cornell proceeded to pump his fist while the guitarist soloed. It was a hilarious moment of rock irony. Later, as various members took solos, they were razzed from the sides of the stage by comrades sailing guitar picks overhead and into the head — like a bunch of high school jokers who had been lifelong friends.

Photo by Court Leve, Grand Sierra magazine

Throughout the set that exceeded 20 songs, Cornell favored Soundgarden and Audioslave songs at about seven each, while doing a handful of his solo songs and three from Temple of the Dog. And even with a four-piece backing band that had nothing to do with the making of most of the songs, the two guitarists, bassist and drummer sounded like they had been with Cornell on every recording he had ever made, nailing all the solos, riffs and fills laid down by other musicians years earlier. Forty-five minutes into the show, Cornell took the stage solo with a Gibson acoustic guitar and broke into “Hotel California” without a hint of irony. He played a few more songs alone before the band joined him again for one of Audioslave’s final songs, 2005’s “Doesn’t Remind Me.”

After two hours, the band left the stage in an obligatory encore prelude, and returned for about 30 minutes more of Soundgarden and Audioslave. Toward an end that was starting to drag on, however, the guys seemed to be goofing off a bit. One song devolved into Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” and the Soundgarden closer “Slaves and Bulldozers” got awfully loose, noisy and long. It may have been too much of a good thing, as evidenced by people heading for the exit.

I’ve heard Cornell called one of the most powerful voices in rock and have seen his name pop up in lists with such singers as Robert Plant and Freddie Mercury. His show proved his worth in that company.

- Jason Kellner, Reno Gazette-Journal

Dandelion - thanks pauldyer33

Thank You - thanks pauldyer33

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2007