Chris Cornell at The Egg in Albany

From the moment that Chris Cornell walked on stage amid a backdrop of only acoustic guitars you knew you were in for an amazing night. After being on stage alone for two hours, 20 minutes and 26 songs, the front man for Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog delivered an incredible sold out performance at the Egg.

Chris Cornell performed at the Hart Theatre in The Egg in Albany on November 17th as part of his 'Acoustic Songbook' Tour. I highly doubt that people went to actually see him play guitar but to hear his extremely powerful awesome voice. In fact Chris himself described the show to the audience as "one acoustic guitar and a guy who can't play the guitar very well".

Almost immediately after he picked up the guitar and opening with 'Scar On The Sky', the very vocal audience began to shout requests, to which he playfully acknowledged with a "requests already"?? There was a point in the show where he thought someone yelled out "vanilla wafers" and true to Cornell's songwriting abilities performed a 45 second to a minute song as only Chris Cornell could write.

It appeared that he was taking requests as he weaved thru many songs from his vast career in an acoustic point of view. Many highlights included 'Be Yourself', 'Wide Awake', 'I Am The Highway' 'Like A Stone' (Audioslave), 'Hunger Strike', 'Call of the Dog', 'Wooden Jesus' (Temple Of The Dog), but the biggest cheers came from classic Soundgarden songs 'Burden in My Hands', 'Fell On Black Days', 'Mind Riot' and 'Black Hole Sun'.

There was a part of the show where Chris put his guitar down and walked over to a turntable to sing to a track of a piano during 'When I'm Down'. During the encore he repeated the same for one of his songs from a solo project called 'Scream'. It was during these songs with no guitar that you could hear the wonderful instrument of his voice without any distractions of guitar playing.

Besides performing from his solo projects and bands that he created or fronted, Cornell unleashed some unique versions of covers Led Zeppelin's 'Thank You', Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean', Credence Clearwater Revivals 'As Long As I Can See The Light', Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song' and ending with John Lennon's 'Imagine'.

Chris Cornell seemed to enjoy the night, the audience and liked playing The Egg as he referenced many times throughout the performance that tonight was justice for the giant hens that will just peck us apart. A well done show to say the least that was enjoyed by every single person in the audience.

Cornell will release a new CD of 'Songbook' tour performances on November 21st.