Friday night was one awesome concert that I was looking forward to for a very long time. Not something I say very often. Chris Cornell came to Victoria on his Songbook tour. This was a solo tour with him playing mostly acoustic.

In a word: wow.

The show was awesome. One of the best concerts I’ve been to. It helped that I got some pretty awesome seats, about 10th row, almost centre.

He played a bunch of Soundgarden songs, some of his solo work, a couple tracks from Audioslave, and a few covers too. It was mesmerizing to watch him play and hear him talk. He bantered with the crowd quite a bit and was quite funny at times. Listening to him sing was the reason we were all there though. His voice sounded great the whole night too. He has such range, and power throughout his entire range. He still has his signature scream that he can hold for a long time.

Hearing so many of the songs done acoustically was interesting. Sometimes it took me a while to figure out what song he was playing, and other times I knew right away. The most surprising song I heard was Mind Riot. Loved it. Hunger Strike was fucking amazing. That for me was the highlight of the show to hear that one live. Seasons was a great song to hear.

Were there any disappointments? No. Every song was enjoyable. I was surprised to not hear Spoonman. I was hoping to hear Outshined too. At the end of the show I was thoroughly happy to have spent the money on the tickets. He put on a great show, sounded great, and was very entertaining.

The setlist:

1. Be Yourself (Audioslave cover)
2. Ground Zero
3. Redemption Song (Bob Marley cover)
4. Sweet Euphoria
5. Can’t Change Me
6. As Hope and Promise Fade
7. Call Me A Dog (Temple of the Dog cover)
8. Sunshower
9. Fell on Black Days (Soundgarden cover)
10. Burden in My Hand (Soundgarden cover)
11. I Am the Highway (Audioslave cover)
12. State Trooper (Bruce Springsteen cover)
13. When I’m Down
14. Seasons
15. All Night Thing (Temple of the Dog cover)
16. Thank You (Led Zeppelin cover)
17. Man of Golden Words/Comfortably Numb
18. Say Hello 2 Heaven (Temple of the Dog cover)
19. Mind Riot (Soundgarden cover)
20. Like Suicide (Soundgarden cover)
21. Like a Stone (Audioslave cover)
22. Doesn’t Remind Me (Audioslave cover)
23. A Day in the Life (The Beatles cover)

Encore:

24. Scream
25. Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog cover)
26. Better Man (Pearl Jam cover)
27. Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover)
28. Black Hole Sun(Soundgarden cover)
29. Imagine (John Lennon cover)

via setlist