On Crocodile Rock
I went to see a show last night. Shan and I drove ~3 hours to Allentown, where we met my sister and her husband, and we went to the Chris Cornell show at Crocodile Rock.
I'm actually not a big fan of going to live shows, because even though I love live music, I hate dealing with obnoxious, drunk idiots that show up to concerts. For example, while we were waiting in line to be patted down (yes, really), a guy walked out of the bar, turned, vomited on the sidewalk right in front of about 40 of us, and then just kept walking down the street. I'll complain more in a bit, but first, a review of what was (crowd aside) another *amazing* show.
For those who aren't familiar (and shame on you if you don't run out to a store or go to iTunes right now to enlighten yourself), Chris Cornell is the former front man for Soundgarden and Audioslave, was part of the Temple of the Dog tribute to Andrew Wood, and he has put out a few solo albums and solo tracks on movie soundtracks. His height of popularity was in the early 90s, which is when I was an undergrad and investing most of my spare cash in CDs (and I don't mean certificates of deposit). I've been a big fan of his since then. What is amazing about his music is that he has an amazing vocal range (and he doesn't sing in falsetto). In fact, Wikipedia's article claims the note he hits in "Jesus Christ Pose"is G above high C, and that he's been known to hit A above high C. Now, when he's hitting those notes, he has his own unique style that is quite different than most folks that can hit them, but still, it's impressive.
During the show, he played something like 30 tracks. He had endless energy, going from one song right into another. He played something like 2 hours straight, and then an encore of about 30 more minutes. The set list was great, mixing Soundgarden (Outshined, Black Hole Sun, Ty Cobb, Rusty Cage...), Audioslave (Like a Stone, Getaway Car, Show Me How to Live, I am the Highway...), with his solo work. About halfway through the show he played the Temple of the Dog hit Hunger Strike, and the crowd loved it. I was just amazed to watch how effortlessly he makes hitting his highest and most powerful notes. I've always thought that Cornell was my generation's Robert Plant, and he threw in Zep's Thank You and Whole Lotta Love and they both sounded great.
I said going in that really the two songs I wanted to hear were "Burden in my Hand" (a likely pick, because it was a Soundgarden hit), and "Sunshower" (a really obscure song from the soundtrack of the movie "Great Expectations"). No luck with either. However, the first track during the encore was "Burden in my Hand", and then he went right into Sunshower. It was amazing. It was definitely worth the 2.5 hour drive there, the crappy crowd, and the 3am return home after the 3 hour drive home in a blustery wintery mix.
So, to end this gushing review, let me tell you why the crowd was so terrible. There were plenty of people there who just didn't care that they were at a show. During Chris' acoustic set in the middle, everyone was talking loudly over the music. A woman standing to my left was blathering on and on about a whole lot of nothing, and it was hard to hear the music over her voice. I just don't understand why people pay $40 to go to a concert and then don't even bother to pay attention. It was a general admission show with no seats, and plenty of people just pushed their way through all of us standing trying to watch. If I had the authority to revoke tickets and kick people out, I would have left only the fans, and we would have had a better show.
I'm actually not a big fan of going to live shows, because even though I love live music, I hate dealing with obnoxious, drunk idiots that show up to concerts. For example, while we were waiting in line to be patted down (yes, really), a guy walked out of the bar, turned, vomited on the sidewalk right in front of about 40 of us, and then just kept walking down the street. I'll complain more in a bit, but first, a review of what was (crowd aside) another *amazing* show.
For those who aren't familiar (and shame on you if you don't run out to a store or go to iTunes right now to enlighten yourself), Chris Cornell is the former front man for Soundgarden and Audioslave, was part of the Temple of the Dog tribute to Andrew Wood, and he has put out a few solo albums and solo tracks on movie soundtracks. His height of popularity was in the early 90s, which is when I was an undergrad and investing most of my spare cash in CDs (and I don't mean certificates of deposit). I've been a big fan of his since then. What is amazing about his music is that he has an amazing vocal range (and he doesn't sing in falsetto). In fact, Wikipedia's article claims the note he hits in "Jesus Christ Pose"is G above high C, and that he's been known to hit A above high C. Now, when he's hitting those notes, he has his own unique style that is quite different than most folks that can hit them, but still, it's impressive.
During the show, he played something like 30 tracks. He had endless energy, going from one song right into another. He played something like 2 hours straight, and then an encore of about 30 more minutes. The set list was great, mixing Soundgarden (Outshined, Black Hole Sun, Ty Cobb, Rusty Cage...), Audioslave (Like a Stone, Getaway Car, Show Me How to Live, I am the Highway...), with his solo work. About halfway through the show he played the Temple of the Dog hit Hunger Strike, and the crowd loved it. I was just amazed to watch how effortlessly he makes hitting his highest and most powerful notes. I've always thought that Cornell was my generation's Robert Plant, and he threw in Zep's Thank You and Whole Lotta Love and they both sounded great.
I said going in that really the two songs I wanted to hear were "Burden in my Hand" (a likely pick, because it was a Soundgarden hit), and "Sunshower" (a really obscure song from the soundtrack of the movie "Great Expectations"). No luck with either. However, the first track during the encore was "Burden in my Hand", and then he went right into Sunshower. It was amazing. It was definitely worth the 2.5 hour drive there, the crappy crowd, and the 3am return home after the 3 hour drive home in a blustery wintery mix.
So, to end this gushing review, let me tell you why the crowd was so terrible. There were plenty of people there who just didn't care that they were at a show. During Chris' acoustic set in the middle, everyone was talking loudly over the music. A woman standing to my left was blathering on and on about a whole lot of nothing, and it was hard to hear the music over her voice. I just don't understand why people pay $40 to go to a concert and then don't even bother to pay attention. It was a general admission show with no seats, and plenty of people just pushed their way through all of us standing trying to watch. If I had the authority to revoke tickets and kick people out, I would have left only the fans, and we would have had a better show.
posted by Chris at 12:41 PM
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