Chris Cornell at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Monday night. It was bloody brilliant! I managed to be almost right at the front on the very left hand side for most of it, which gave me a fantastic view, but I had to move further back about 3/4 of the way through, because I was literally right next to the speaker stack and it was hurting my ears!

Both the man and his band had terrific stage presence, making full use of the entire stage, jumping up onto raised platforms at either side, and just generally giving a far more energetic performance than when I saw him at Hyde Park Calling in 2007. Chris's voice is still spot on, even 19 years after some of the songs were recorded, and some of those vocals are pretty punishing! The only problem I had with the sound was that it went a bit funny half way through for a few songs, leaving Chris's voice sounding horribly digitised, and resulting in a performance of Rusty Cage where I didn't even realise what the song was until right at the end.

I was a bit apprehensive when I heard he was going to be playing his entire new album (which hasn't even been released yet), I figured it would probably be the whole thing in sequence with a few older song tacked on at the end, and indeed it was at the other London show he played last week ... what I got was an incredible setlist with only about half of the new album (and not all in a row either!), and songs from every album he's released since 1990 (except for the third Audioslave album). If you are a fan of his (Spunky, I hope you are reading this!), then witness this awesomeness:

Part Of Me
Time
You Know My Name
No Such Thing
Gun
Spoonman (w/ Good Times, Bad Times [Led Zeppelin Cover])
Hunger Strike (with Tim McIlrath of Rise Against)
Show Me How To Live
Exploder
Be Yourself
Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover)
Ground Zero
Never Far Away
Gasoline
Rusty Cage
Can't Change Me (Acoustic)
Fell On Black Days (Acoustic)
Dandelion (Acoustic)
Like A Stone (Acoustic)
- Band Jam -
Cochise
Watch Out
Burden In My Hand
Pretty Noose
Arms Around Your Love
Scream
Outshined
Jesus Christ Pose

Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin Cover)
Disappearing One
Like Suicide

That's 30 songs and 2 and a half hours of nonstop alternative anthems. ****ing brilliant. 9/10, for sure