Soundgarden - Festival Hall, 24 February 2015

Soundgarden's last headlining show in Melbourne was ruined by the awful sound at Sidney Myer. And while Festival Hall isn't the greatest of venues (by a long stretch), the sound was good and the band put on a great show.

Without an opening act and a scheduled set of nearly three hours, I was hoping that the band might be planning on doing something interesting. In the end they came on stage 45 minutes late, but when the eventually made it they were on fire. The set featured a lot of Superunknown songs, with a few from all their other albums thrown into the mix.

The recording is really good, there's a tiny bit of noise from people around me and from when I've moved as people walk back and forth from the bar, but other than that this sounds great.

Flower
Kickstand
Outshined
Attrition
Room a Thousand Years Wide
Jesus Christ Pose
Like Suicide
Superunknown
Mailman
Black Hole Sun
Spoonman
Hunted Down
Ty Cobb
Fell on Black Days
My Wave
The Day I Tried to Live
Been Away Too Long
Pretty Noose
Birth Ritual
A Thousand Days Before
Rusty Cage

Limo Wreck
Slaves & Bulldozers

FLAC

MP3

Soundgarden - Live on Letterman 2012

No news on whether Soundgarden will play sideshows while they're here for Soundwave (and if they do hopefully they avoid Sidney Myer Music Bowl). For those going, here's a promotional show on Letterman from the release of the new album.

Worse Dreams
By Crooked Steps
Incessant Mace
Beyond the Wheel
Taree
A Thousand Days Before
Eyelid's Mouth
Non-State Actor
Fell on Black Days
Rowing


https://mega.co.nz/#F!dMEUUQhJ!Cs9zBog2G5wItm26iayCuw

Best in Show

With no more shows scheduled this month I thought it might be a good time for a mid-year performance review.  How have this years shows been?  What have been the highlights/lowlights?  And so on.

My top show:

1. Noel Gallagher - my expectations for this weren't that high, but having never seen Oasis I thought this would be worthwhile.  It turned out to be great.  Gallagher Sr is a great singer, and his new album is as good as most of Oasis' material.  He also did a good job of mixing old and new, and rarities and big hits.  The recording of this also turned out great.

Honourable mentions:

2. My Morning Jacket
3. Jason Isbell
4. Jason Isbell/Ryan Adams
5. Wavves

Worst show:

Soundgarden - the best of this year probably doesn't match the best of last year, and fortunately the worst of this year also doesn't match the worst of last year (Big Boi).  The problem with this gig was the awful (awful!) sound.  It was muddy and bass heavy.  For some songs it was pretty much impossible to know what was being sung, and things never got any better.  I've heard bad things about Sidney Myer, but its hard to believe that any band (or promoter) would put up with a venue this bad.  Hopefully it will prove to be better when I see the Black Keys there.

Soundgarden - 1 February 2012, Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Given how long ago it was my memories of this show are a bit vague.  The two things that stand out were how incredibly bad the sound was, and what an awful mood Ben Shepherd was in.  The former was reinforced by listening to the show again.  The performance itself is very good, but its hard to look past the muddy sound which featured throughout the set.  I'd heard that Sidney Myer was a bad venue, but that BDO headliners used it because Rod Laver was used for the Australian Open at the same time.  However, the final of the tennis was on Sunday, and this show was on the following Wednesday - surely enough time to make any necessary changes?
Anyway, I should also mention that I fucked up a bit and only managed to get the set from Pretty Noose onwards.  Normally I wouldn't bother putting up a partial show, but given the level of interest in Soundgarden, and the fact that no other versions have appeared I'll make this one available.

Searching with my Good Eye Closed (not recorded)
Spoonman (not recorded)
Jesus Christ Pose (not recorded)
Hands All Over (not recorded)
Blow Up the Outside World (not recorded)
Hunted Down (not recorded)
Drawing Flies (not recorded)
My Wave (not recorded)
The Day I Tried to Live (not recorded)
Pretty Noose
Burden in My Hand
Fell on Black Days
Ty Cobb
Rusty Cage
Outshined
Let Me Drown
Black Hole Sun
Loud Love
Superunknown
Band Intros
4th of July

Beyond the Wheel
I Awake
Slaves & Bulldozers/In My Time of Dying

http://www.mediafire.com/?8ieduowx7rr07

Soundgarden Melbourne poster

For anyone interested, there were two posters for the Soundgarden Melbourne/Sydney shows.  The one for VIP ticket holders was orange, but the guy behind the posters has a signed and number purple version (pic below).  Posters are $US35 plus postage.  Link below the poster.

http://f4dstudios.com/store/soundgarden-sydney-print/