Growing Up Grunge: The Once-in-a-Lifetime Show

So just for fun, I'm including Monday in my weekend scoop. The reason for this is that last night down in New York City, my all-time favorite artist, Chris Cornell, played with Temple of the Dog! As a child of the grunge era, I fell in love with Soungarden at a young age, and have since been mesmerized by everything that Chris Cornell has done. Now Temple of the Dog as a band was an off-shoot project that started in 1990, formed as a tribute to Andrew Wood—lead singer of Mother Love Bone—after his death. Temple of the Dog, throughout its course, featured grunge gods Chris Cornell [Soundgarden], Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready [Pearl Jam], Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard [Mother Love Bone], and Matt Cameron [Pearl Jam, Soundgarden]. While Chris Cornell was recruited as the vocalist, Eddie Vedder was featured as well, most famously to the public on their hit song "Hunger Strike."

Reunited for the band's 25th anniversary, the tour itself is a "mini-tour" only featuring a couple stops in major cities such as New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. Those who got the chance to see the show really got to enjoy what may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The band opened with one of its more popular songs, "Say Hello 2 Heaven," which showcased Cornell's enormous vocal range. From there, the band played a variety of songs, from Mother Love Bone covers, to their own hit "Hunger Strike," as well as some other covers including "Quicksand" by David Bowie, "Achilles Last Stand" by Led Zeppelin, and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath. To me, grunge is something that never disappoints, and Temple of the Dog definitely lived up to the hype. The tour continues on to the west coast, through the final stop, so fittingly, in Seattle on Nov. 21.

Included in my weekend scoop are a couple other rock news tidbits to highlight that I was particularly excited about. To start off, though some of you may have already heard by now, Dropkick Murphys announced a new album! Coming out January 6, 2017, "11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory" is the band's first new album in YEARS and is available for pre-order now on their website, dropkickmurphys.com.

Also, in three days from now, The Word Alive kicks off their Overdose Tour at its first stop in Portland, Oregon. The band is headlining the tour, named so aptly after a single they JUST DROPPED called "Overdose." Now what I particularly love about this single is the fact that the band is donating a large portion of the proceeds of each sale towards helping youth overcome addictions. The band is hitting the road with Volumes, Islander, and Invent Animate, and for those of you who were able to catch them earlier in the year at Upstate Concert hall, you know that the show will be worth checking out.  One other reason to catch them on this tour is that this will be drummer Luke Holland's last tour with the band.  He will be stepping away from The Word Alive at the conclusion of this tour to pursue other opportunities, though despite this, the band maintains The Word Alive is going to move forward, and are on extremely good terms with Luke. The band released a post about this on their facebook page this past Thursday, with some nice sentiments in a statement from the members themselves. On another note, they also happen to mention this is their longest headlining set yet, with new live songs being thrown in the mix! More information on the band and tour is available at wearethewordalive.com.

Talking about The Word Alive leads me to my next point of excitement, which is Crown the Empire's upcoming concert at Upstate Concert Hall! The Word Alive shared the "Monster" stage this past summer with Crown the Empire during Warped Tour, among other bands on the stage such as Every Time I Die, Wage War, and Ice Nine Kills. Crown The Empire will be playing at Upstate Concert Hall on November 19th, headlining a group of bands including Bless The Fall, New Years Day, and Too Close to Touch.  I had a chance to see these guys live on Warped Tour this past summer, and with their two lead vocalists [Andrew Velasquez and David Escamilla], they hit the stage with a strong presence of their own, and phenomenal rock harmonies with a heavy undertone.

We've got a bunch of rock shows coming up in the next few weeks in the Capital District [including Asking Alexandria on Nov. 15 at Upstate Concert Hall!] so I'll be looking forward to sharing more music info and news throughout this season on my blog. Be sure to check back for more posts!