Soundgarden at the Gorge on Saturday, July 30th
The sun was shining and since we had Sunday off we decided to load up the VW, have a little fun and camp for the night at the Gorge! This was my first time camping in the regular camping and that was an experience in itself, at the price we freaking pay for tickets and camping the least THE GORGE can do is put up fucking arrows that say letters A-F this way G-K this way and so on… so we are not walking around in the dark for an extra hour – I wasn’t even drunk! That campsite needs some serious organization.
The lineup tonight included four fantastic bands Meat Puppets, Mastadon, Queens of the Stone Age, and Soundgarden. We have seen the first three bands before, even more than once so we deiced to enjoy the sun, cold beers, and the company of our neighbors before we headed in to catch QOTSA. I love love love QOSTA and was excited to hear my jams live and sing along to “Little Sister,” “Make It Wit Chu,” “No One Knows,” “Go With the Flow,” “A Song for the Dead,” and a handful more. Oh man the pit was going crazy, they crowd looked like someone just dumped a bucket of bouncy balls on the floor. These guys had to be stoked to be playing to thousands of people screaming the lyrics to their music.
The moment had arrived; tonight was 15 years to the date from the last time Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd rocked the Gorge at Lollapalooza 1996…they finally got back around and they made it home! Tonight they didn’t disappoint on ANY level. One they sounded extremely incredible, two they played the classics and songs we all wanted to hear, three they are making a new record and mentioned there are new tunes to come.
Matt has seen Chris Cornell Solo and Audioslave, but has never had the opportunity to experience Soundgarden live in concert. He was completely floored, and couldn’t get over how cool it was to see almost 20,000 people dig every moment of the set. Even I got excited to look at all of the people around me, raising their beers to the band after each song and rocking out. Chris Cornell’s vocals weren’t even a hint of worn out… for as long as he has been singing his vocals are just as great as they were years ago. The show was flawless, completely perfect we honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Soundgarden Songs we rocked out too tonight included: “Searching With My Good Eye Closed,” “Spoonman,” “Gun,” “Jesus Christ Pose,” “Blow Up the Outside World,” “The Day I Tried to Live,” “Burden in My Hand,” “Fell on Black Days,” “Hunted Down,” “Black Hole Sun,” “Outshined,” “Rusty Cage,” and “Superunknown.” There were a few more songs added into the mix including a three song encore that left the crowd leaving with belly’s full of beer and smiles on their faces.
It was one of the best shows we have ever seen at the Gorge.
