So I went to see Soundgarden at this year’s Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. Very simply, they were all that I could have wished for and more. In fact, I think it is safe for me to say that the band were the perfect headlining act for this year’s edition of the Bluesfest. Chris Cornell was the quintessential frontman, working the audience expertly and turning in a superb performance on the night; I especially liked his “Canada has the best fans” banter (even though I seriously doubt if that’s 100% true) – always nice to get a bit extra love from one of the world’s biggest bands. Soundgarden also played a healthy selection of songs – most of their bigger hits made the cut, whereas a couple of deeper album tracks also managed to appear (always neat to see). Personally, I was incredibly satisfied to get “Spoonman” and “Jesus Christ Pose” back-to-back in the setlist. The choice of “Black Rain” as the setlist opener was also intriguing and was a move that could easily have backfired spectacularly, but it ended up working well enough. The crowd was perhaps one of the most unruly that I have ever seen throughout my time in Ottawa – I counted at least fifteen crowdsurfers, and I ended up in the epicenter of the moshpit at least thrice. A couple of times it felt like I was riding my luck with my DSLR one time too many, but thankfully, we’re both okay =)
Here are some more pictures and the night’s complete setlist:
This was taken during “Hunted Down”, I think.
There certainly was lots of “Loud Love” going around for Soundgarden that night.
Kim Thayil – Soundgarden’s lead guitarist. I never truly realized how goddamned good he was until I saw his fingers dancing on his instrument throughout the night o.O Absolutely breathtaking.
Speak the rhythm all alone.
Complete Setlist:
Black Rain
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Let Me Drown
Spoonman
Jesus Christ Pose
My Wave
The Day I Tried To Live
Blow Up The Outside World
Hunted Down
Ugly Truth
Fell On Black Days
Burden In My Hand
Black Hole Sun
Rusty Cage
Outshined
Beyond The Wheel
- Encore -
Loud Love
Superunknown
Slaves & Bulldozers
Elsewhere, Coheed and Cambria were – save for about two minutes during their performance of ”Gravemakers & Gunslingers” – mediocre as ever.
I have always maintained that Coheed & Cambria’s abject inability to connect with their audience would, one day, be the death of them. Their performance today provided some evidence that my hypothesis may be quite correct – faced with a crowd that was a.) largely there on the day for one of Soundgarden, The Flaming Lips, or perhaps Tegan & Sara and b.) ignorant about Coheed and only there out of curiosity, the band treated the audience with the same lack of deference that I’ve come to expect from them. Low on crowd interaction and long on self-serving musical masturbation, my final viewing of this American quartet left me feeling as vacant and disengaged as I had felt both times prior (London 2010 and Toronto 2011). The reappearance of the much-hated “Pearl of the Stars” and “Wake Up” did nothing to improve my mood.
For me the high point of their performance was their rendition of “Gravemakers & Gunslingers” – one of their (many) tracks that I was yet to see live. IMHO, the number is severely under-rated.
Complete Setlist:
No World For Tomorrow
Gravemakers & Gunslingers
Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood & Burial)
Pearl of the Stars
Delirium Trigger
Here We Are Juggernaut
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Devil In Jersey City
Wake Up
Welcome Home
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes were…okay, I guess. They did nothing to convince me that they were really worth my time – I found most of their live performances relatively uninteresting and too-slowly-paced for my liking (although I will readily concede that this may be due to my inability to access their genre as opposed to their being legitimately mediocre). I will say this though: their performance of “Home” (their best-selling single) was phenomenal, and by God they milked the damn thing for all it was worth. Any band that can turn a normal five-minute song into a ten-minute, sing-a-long-inducing juggernaut is worthy of some commendation. In addition, their hippie-like nature was quite amusing too; there were references on how to stop being an asshole, why some members of the audience were too cool for their own good, and how pretty a passing bird was (the vocalist was superbly high on crack, no doubt). Oh hippies.
I don’t have a full setlist for you though, unfortunately >.<
And thus ends my final concert experience in North America. Like many other things throughout my stay in Canada, it has truly been – no other word for it – a blast. I’m going to miss being able to attend five or six top-class shows/concerts a year dearly.
