Photos courtesy of the very nice Jeffgarden website. My own grainy and distant photos can be found in several of the posts below. Jeffgarden also has a couple videos (Billie Jean and Redemption Song). The visual quality is great, thanks in part to the proximity to the band - but the audio is overloaded for the same reason.
We had a great time at the show, which was a good mix of Soundgarden, Audioslave, and solo material. I was apprehensive about how much stuff he would play from the new album. It did not dominate the set - comprising less than a third, which was good. You can take a look at the setlist in a previous post. His vocals sounded good and were prominent (in a good way) in the mix, especially compared to the Audioslave show I saw almost exactly four years ago, when his voice was pretty much buried. The Scream songs certainly didn't fit smoothly with the rest of the set. Even though they were probably improved by being performed by his band, they still sounded completely different from the other songs because of the odd effects on the vocals, and synthesized crap that predictably sounded very artificial.
I would still say that I enjoyed the Audioslave show more, and I don't think it's purely a case of being in the front row versus being back and off the floor. Instead, I would attribute it to the fact that Audioslave was great, cohesive actual band in concert, while last night's show was definitely a case of a great singer performing with backing musicians.
I had been hoping for the inclusion of a little Zeppelin at the show, but it didn't happen. During this tour, Spoonman has included a little Good Times Bad Times, and Immigrant Song has been featured as an encore at many concerts, but the Chicago show was regrettably unLedded.
This request sign for Down on the Upside's Overfloater was prepared by the people behind the Jeffgarden site. Chris remarked on the sign during the show, took it in hand and placed it on the drum riser, but unfortunately it was not played (perhaps due to the curfew mentioned at the show and the interview here; the link is to the first of an enjoyable four-part interview at a Chicago alternative station... in part two, he addresses Soundgarden rumors).
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