Chris Cornell acoustic at the State Theatre

Last Monday night, I got to see another 90's rock icon live in concert for the first time, as the voice of Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, took his Higher Truth tour to the historic State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. I bought my ticket months ago (after some struggles with Ticketmaster's online ordering system), and was excited to finally get to see this legend play live!

I got to the theater on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis in time to admire the classic venue, one that reminded me of the Paramount Theater in St. Cloud. I made my way to my balcony seat in time for the opening act, a solo female artist going by the name of Hemming, play several sad, soulful solo acoustic songs. I admired her creativity, as she made me think of the many wonderful independent artists I had the pleasure of covering back in my Muse Magazine days. I wasn't even expecting an opening act for this show, but I thought she did a good job of entertaining the crowd that was still filing in.

Before long, Chris Cornell took to the stage, graciously greeting the audience as he plucked a guitar from one of the nearby stands and began to play his first song. He played several songs from his new solo album Higher Truth, as well as a few well-known classics from his Audioslave and Soundgarden catalog. He also made a few homages to Minnesota, talking about coming up with the line "feeling Minnesota" in the Soundgarden song "Outshined," and playing a few Bob Dylan covers. He also played a great version of "Rusty Cage" in tribute to Johnny Cash's rendition, and a cover of the Prince-penned song "Nothing Compares 2 U," best known for the Sinead O'Connor version. I'd heard him play an acoustic studio version of this song a few days earlier, and wondered if he'd play it during the show. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this, a stark and stripped down version of a great song!

After a long set, including a couple of encore songs, the evening's music had come to a close. I was happy to finally cross Cornell off my musicians' bucket list! The next concert would be coming up soon enough for me!