Cornell's New Scream

Last night I saw him at the Warehouse in downtown Houston.  Imagine St. Andrew's but slightly nicer, but with no balcony.  He put on a great show and was full of energy.  I wonder if he's back on drugs, like the time in the mid 90s when he tried to commit suicide by jumping off a 10 story building but landing on a tree and climbed down unscathed.  Just kidding.  But the show was great and the band sounded awesome.  Unfortunately they didn't start playing till about 10:15 and at 12, Natasha was complaining to go.  Also unfortunately, he played ten more songs after I left.  Here's the setlist:

Part of Me

Time

No Such Thing

Set it Off

Gun (never heard of this song before, maybe old Soundgarden??)

Spoonman (w/drum solo and first half of Good Times Bad Times)

Hunger Strike

Show Me How to Live

Exploder

Be Yourself

You Know My Name

Billie Jean

Ground Zero

Never Far Away

Gasoline

Rusty Cage

Can't Change Me (acoustic by himself)

Redemption Song (Marley cover & acoustic by himself)

I Promise It's Not Goodbye (acoustic song he wrote for a friend he said lives in Texas and has a tumor)

Fell On Black Days (acoustic by himself)

Like A Stone (acoustic by himself)

Cochise

Watch Out

Burden In My Hand (w/ All Along the Watchtower, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Stairway to Heaven medley)

Arms Around Your Love

Scream

Climbing Up The Walls

Outshined

Jesus Christ  Pose

Encore:

Immigrant Song

Like Suicide

Black Hole Sun

As Far as his new album is concerned, I have mixed feelings.  It's always difficult to take in seeing one of your favorite musicians doing something that could be potentially embarrassing or something you know you simply won't like.  This new album is a little better than I expected, though.  The best thing is how all the songs flow together, there aren't any gaps in music the entire length, so in that sense it's like Dark Side of the Moon  or Frances the Mute (minus the concept-album themes).  Personally, the two best songs are the Justin Timberlake-collaborated "Take Me Alive" with its Eastern sampling and the great vocals, and the other song being "Climbing Up The Walls," a song that sounds like it could have been a B-side from any other Cornell project, with seemingly no or very little influence from Timbaland and a good, straight-ahead rock feel.  

My Rating 7/10