Soundgarden finally reunited and took their show to the Festival Pier in Philadelphia on July 13, 2011. The band took a brief 14 year break before finally burying the hatchet and treating fans to what they really need, a balls out grunge fest.

The band is doing smaller, more intimate venues this first time out, almost as if they are attempting to get their road legs. The Festival Pier holds about 5,000 people and was stacked to capacity. It was my first time at the pier and it thought it was just a cleverly titled venue name...nope it truly is a pier. The layout looks like this:

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Actually, it looks like a thick dick with the stage being the pubic hair. Soundgarden kept their stage setup minimal (just a banner behind them of a skull with a creepy female Sauron eye. If you saw the Audioslave's Soundgarden mini set they did, it's the same banner.

The band hit the stage promptly at 8:45 so take note of that because if you plan on showing up later (around 9), you'll miss their opening.

The band blasted out of a canon ripping through Searching With My Good Eye Open, Spoonman, Let Me Drown, and Room With a Thousand Years Wide. The thick heavy bass and drums laid out by Shepard and Cameron respectively brought back that glorious 90s sound and nostalgia we have missed since Nickelback took over the airwaves. 

Kim Thayil's guitars had that Soundgarden whirl, but were really drowned out by the thick bass and drums. At times, and it could have been where I was standing, the bass and drums even overtook Cornell's vocals.

Speaking of Cornell, he grew his hair back for this tour and he looked like a Jon Snow of Game of Thrones fame or some hybrid mix of Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl. However, Cornell still has that high register that helped catapult Soundgarden into the mainstream. His vocals were on point all night with limited use of a vocal effects. *He only used them to accentuate a scream much like Rob Halford does in Judas Priest.

The band's set list focused more on the old stuff with some great rarities thrown in like Mailman, Ugly Truth, and Hunted Down. The band wasn't there to interact with the crowd too much, they were there to entertain so Cornell kept the talking to a minimum only mentioning how loud Philly was (we were) and how much pot was being smoked (alot). 

The crowd was a mix of older grunge heads who replaced their flannel with jeans and a polo shirt. They grew up, but at the show, you wouldn't have been able to tell. The gray haired people were rocking just as hard as the youngsters. 

I have been at concerts where heavy pot smoke was evident, but never at a show quite like this. We were outdoors on a pier that before the concert started smelling like a 400 lbs woman's vertical bacon sandwich after running a mile. When Soundgarden took the stage there was a visible thick cloud of reefer smoke that overtook the fish smell.

I couldn't have asked for a better setlist as a Soundgarden fan. It was a stupendous mix of hits and deep cuts. The band was tight, well rehearsed, and looked hungry to prove they still could rip it like they could in their heyday. Setlist is below and you can drool over what Philly heard:

Setlist

Searching with My Good Eye Open

Spoonman

Let Me Drown

Room A Thousand Years Wide

Jesus Christ Pose

Blowup The Outside World

The Day I Tried to Live

My Wave

Fell on Black Days

Hunted Down

Ugly Truth

Outshined

Rusty Cage

Black Hole Sun

Burden in My Hand

Pretty Noose

4th of July

Superunknown

Encore:

Beyond the Wheel

Mailman

Like Suicide

Slaves and Bulldozers

I let the professionals take the photos, so here is a link to that professional. 

As a Post Script to this review, Matt Cameron is a beast on the drums. I have seen him play 3.5 hours with Pearl Jam and after seeing him tear his kit up on Jesus Christ Pose with Soundgarden, I'd argue he's one of the greats out there.