Total Fucking Godhead / The Soundgarden Thread

[matt reeder]

Non of those are soundboard right?

7/22/92 is soundboard, albeit not a terribly good one. It's great for its era but Chris has some vocal issues during the show. I still love it, though.

[VinylGuy]

Non of those are soundboard right?

7/22/92 is soundboard, albeit not a terribly good one. It's great for its era but Chris has some vocal issues during the show. I still love it, though.

Is there a show from 1995 or 96 with a soundboard quality?

[matt reeder]

Non of those are soundboard right?

7/22/92 is soundboard, albeit not a terribly good one. It's great for its era but Chris has some vocal issues during the show. I still love it, though.

Is there a show from 1995 or 96 with a soundboard quality?

Other than the three radio / TV performances (Self-Pollution Radio, Saturday Night Live and MTV Live and Loud), no. I've never been able to confirm it but I suspect the band decided not to authorize radio broadcasts when they started touring behind Superunknown.

And honestly, they weren't all that great live most nights anyway. Up until early 1994 they were great pretty much every single night; once they began touring behind Superunknown they became very hit or miss, and some nights they just flat-out stunk (particularly towards the end). And maybe they didn't authorize FM or TV broadcasts because they knew it?

[VinylGuy]

Non of those are soundboard right?

7/22/92 is soundboard, albeit not a terribly good one. It's great for its era but Chris has some vocal issues during the show. I still love it, though.

Is there a show from 1995 or 96 with a soundboard quality?

Other than the three radio / TV performances (Self-Pollution Radio, Saturday Night Live and MTV Live and Loud), no. I've never been able to confirm it but I suspect the band decided not to authorize radio broadcasts when they started touring behind Superunknown.

And honestly, they weren't all that great live most nights anyway. Up until early 1994 they were great pretty much every single night; once they began touring behind Superunknown they became very hit or miss, and some nights they just flat-out stunk (particularly towards the end). And maybe they didn't authorize FM or TV broadcasts because they knew it?

Weird. I always felt like SG in 1996 live could have been amazing.
Specially for the chaos approach they seemed to have around that time.

[matt reeder]

VinylGuy, they were very hit or miss. Some nights they were amazing, some nights they were average, and some nights they were terrible. It's a bummer there aren't more recordings from that tour, particularly the last leg in Australia where this tendency went to the extreme. It's been said (and zeb was there and can confirm) that the Brisbane show in 1997 was one of the all-time great SG shows, while at least a few of the shows may be a contender for worst ever Soundgarden show.

[VinylGuy]

Yeah, i get that.

Its surprising they become very consistent in the reunion.

[bada]

Probably all off the sauce and paraphernalia now.

[matt reeder]

It's amazing what getting along, practicing and staying away from drugs and alcohol will do for a band's performance. Soundgarden began to decline as a live act the minute Chris Cornell began drinking during shows (which was in 1994). He's sober now, and they all like each other again, and it's because of this that they sound good. I just wish they toured more.

[matt reeder]

While we're on the subject, if you've never listened to some of the SG shows from the US tour in 1996...wow. There's a handful where Chris is absolutely smashed, to an almost unbelievable degree. Denver and Chicago I in particular are just drunkfests that have to be heard to be believed. He cleaned up his act by the end of that tour, but it's incredible to hear even if it's a bit painful. Supposedly the Newcastle show on the Australian tour (1/29/1997) is the worst but there's no recording of it out there that I know of.

[VinylGuy]

While we're on the subject, if you've never listened to some of the SG shows from the US tour in 1996...wow. There's a handful where Chris is absolutely smashed, to an almost unbelievable degree. Denver and Chicago I in particular are just drunkfests that have to be heard to be believed. He cleaned up his act by the end of that tour, but it's incredible to hear even if it's a bit painful. Supposedly the Newcastle show on the Australian tour (1/29/1997) is the worst but there's no recording of it out there that I know of.

Ill look for those. Its surprising that Cornell has managed to do stuff while he was so fucked up. I mean, he was even in poor condition during the Audioslave tours too i think.

[bada]

Sounds like he had a bit of a lost decade there.

[VinylGuy]

Sounds like he had a bit of a lost decade there.

Yeah, but he kept doing stuff. He record solo albums, had another band, did tours...I wasnt really sure he had an addiction until the Grunge is dead book came oout.

[bada]

Sounds like he had a bit of a lost decade there.

Yeah, but he kept doing stuff. He record solo albums, had another band, did tours...I wasnt really sure he had an addiction until the Grunge is dead book came oout.

Yeah it seemed to mostly manifest itself in his vocals...at least when he played live. No idea how it impacted his personal life and stuff. I imagine it wasn't fun.

[Kevin Davis]

It's amazing what getting along, practicing and staying away from drugs and alcohol will do for a band's performance. Soundgarden began to decline as a live act the minute Chris Cornell began drinking during shows (which was in 1994). He's sober now, and they all like each other again, and it's because of this that they sound good. I just wish they toured more.

What a shame that their live nadir coincided with their studio pinnacle -- are there any other artists you can say that about?

[matt reeder]

It's amazing what getting along, practicing and staying away from drugs and alcohol will do for a band's performance. Soundgarden began to decline as a live act the minute Chris Cornell began drinking during shows (which was in 1994). He's sober now, and they all like each other again, and it's because of this that they sound good. I just wish they toured more.

What a shame that their live nadir coincided with their studio pinnacle -- are there any other artists you can say that about?

The obvious answer is the Beatles, given they recorded Revolver and wouldn't perform any of it live. But that's almost an exception, given the time. There's an argument to be made about Nirvana here, but that's a different topic for a different day. With some thought and time to go through my bootleg collection I could think of some others.

As for why Soundgarden sucked live - and they did not always suck during this time, and some nights they were very, very good - there are lots of reasons. One of them is tour fatigue (although they toured less than many of their counterparts during this time, they toured more than any of their counterparts from 1988 through 1992); another is an uncertainty of how to present some of their later period material live, and many fan favorites were never really fleshed out live; yet another reason is that they, like many of their counterparts, were never an arena band and failed to connect with larger crowds in the way that Pearl Jam seems to do effortlessly. And of course, there is the substance abuse.

It's not easy being a good touring arena band, which is Pearl Jam's greatest achievement. Very few bands have ever been good at it for an extended period of time, at least without succumbing to the excessive choreography that is the hallmark of bands like Muse.

[tragabigzanda]

[bodysnatcher]

I'm sure one could argue Neil Young

[breakerfall66]

It's amazing what getting along, practicing and staying away from drugs and alcohol will do for a band's performance. Soundgarden began to decline as a live act the minute Chris Cornell began drinking during shows (which was in 1994). He's sober now, and they all like each other again, and it's because of this that they sound good. I just wish they toured more.

I had (actually I still do have some great shows) back in early 1994 with awesome flac/soundboard-like quality. One they did in Australia, one in Osaka, JP and another in Scandinavia somewhere (in Oslo). All of these shows took place in the very early part of the Superunknown tour (before the US release). One of the hit shows took place in Rochester, NY; one of the best versions of Limo Wreck and I Awake I have ever heard the band play. Also, the show at the Sunrise Medical Center in FL is one worth looking for.

You really have to look long and hard for the great Soundgarden boots.

[matt reeder]

It's amazing what getting along, practicing and staying away from drugs and alcohol will do for a band's performance. Soundgarden began to decline as a live act the minute Chris Cornell began drinking during shows (which was in 1994). He's sober now, and they all like each other again, and it's because of this that they sound good. I just wish they toured more.

I had (actually I still do have some great shows) back in early 1994 with awesome flac/soundboard-like quality. One they did in Australia, one in Osaka, JP and another in Scandinavia somewhere (in Oslo). All of these shows took place in the very early part of the Superunknown tour (before the US release). One of the hit shows took place in Rochester, NY; one of the best versions of Limo Wreck and I Awake I have ever heard the band play. Also, the show at the Sunrise Medical Center in FL is one worth looking for.

You really have to look long and hard for the great Soundgarden boots.

You're thinking of 1/18/94, 2/08/94, 3/23/94, 6/14/94 and 7/28/94. I actually surfaced the first two and the other three have been around for ages. I'm quite fond of all but 7/28; there are better shows from that leg, but they really started to phone it in around that time and the setlists from that leg of the tour are all almost identical, other than the final show in Seattle.

My favorite shows from that tour, other than the ones mentioned above:

4/16/94 - London, UK
6/17/94 - New York, NY
7/01/94 - St. Paul, MN
7/22/94 - San Antonio, TX

[VinylGuy]

It's amazing what getting along, practicing and staying away from drugs and alcohol will do for a band's performance. Soundgarden began to decline as a live act the minute Chris Cornell began drinking during shows (which was in 1994). He's sober now, and they all like each other again, and it's because of this that they sound good. I just wish they toured more.

What a shame that their live nadir coincided with their studio pinnacle -- are there any other artists you can say that about?

Cat Power comes to mind. You Are Free is her best work, and her tour was a mess.

I really think she hit her potential with The Greatest and that tour was amazing.