photo by Tina Hagerling
The "Scream" tour opened with the first-ever performance of Chris Cornell's forthcoming album, start to finish, as Chris said in his blog - "front to back without any breaks in the music. No talking. No breathing. The album as it is meant to be heard, recorded or live."
Intro - Part Of Me - Time - Sweet Revenge - Get Up - Ground Zero - Never Far Away - Take Me Alive - Long Gone - Scream - Enemy - Other Side Of Town - Climbing Up the Walls - Watch Out - Two Drink Minimum
Rolling Stone
The idea was for Timbaland to warm up the crowd, but the super-producer’s hour-and-a-half set on Friday night at Denver’s packed Ogden Theatre was so boisterous, intimate, funky and funny that the headliner, singer Chris Cornell (Timbo’s latest client), never really had a chance. Barely moving more than a raised eyebrow, Timbaland conducted his hot seven-piece band from James Brown-style groove workouts like “Oh Timbaland” to his underrated house-party anthem “Bounce.”
Barely singing, rapping or even speaking much throughout the songs, the deadpan Timbaland’s main job was to be a presence, holding the crowd’s attention so his super-tight “junkyard band” could do most of the work. Although he tossed out a few songs from his album due in February, he mostly stuck to last year’s Shock Value, including the closing “Throw It On Me,” which recalled OutKast’s propulsive “B.O.B.” and couldn’t help but transition into “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Expectations were therefore high for Cornell, the former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman. For a few minutes between sets, the crowd seemed especially pumped up for him. Would he perform with Timbaland’s band? Would the singer known for punk and metal anthems turn into a funk balladeer? Would he do the splits? Unfortunately, most of Timbaland’s band packed up their gear and walked off the stage.
That was an omen. Cornell’s new sound had the feel of ’80s Peter Gabriel, with two metal guitarists roaming the stage and a drummer playing rigid house-music beats as two keyboardists created a swirling, soothing synth sound to match his high-pitched vocals. Cornell exclusively did songs from Scream, opening with “Part of Me,” which set a mild hip-hop rhythm to the chorus “That bitch ain’t a part of me.”
photo by Tina Hagerling
Fortunately, Cornell has enough sex appeal to hold just about any crowd’s attention. He and his low-slung jeans admirably redeemed the new material until the very end. At that point, he did his two best songs, “Watch Out,” a hip-hop-spiced rock anthem that came close to matching Timbaland’s energy, and a stripped-down ballad about loneliness called “Two Drink Minimum.” But if this was a battle of the bands, it was no contest.
Steve Knopper, Rolling Stone
Denver Post
Seemingly random musical pairings are nothing new — think Kanye West and Daft Punk, Beyoncé and Sugarland or Will Oldham and Tortoise — but pairing the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave with hip-hop/R&B super-producer Timbaland seems more left-field than most. Raise your eyebrows if you must, but the two have been criss-crossing the country performing separate co-headlining sets on the heels of Chris Cornell’s latest solo outing.
No, the rapture isn’t nigh. Timbaland’s hands are all over Cornell’s new solo album “Scream,” which he recently called “the best work I’ve done in my career.” Cornell also recently co-wrote the new single from “American Idol” winner David Cook, “Light On.” So, yeah. Put that in your pop pipe and smoke it.
- Tina Hagerling, Denver Post
photo by Tina Hagerling
AllieIsWired Entertainment Blog
Timbaland and Chris Cornell officially launched their new album “Scream” in Denver, Colorado on Friday (October 17, 2008).
If you were lucky enough to attend, you witnessed one hell of a show — both of these men performed their asses off. I’ve always known that Timbaland was a tremendous music producer, but I didn’t know he was such a great performer. — He just got himself a new fan.
Timbaland opened the show, performing a string of his radio hits — including Nelly Furtado’s Promiscuous Girl, Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back and One Republic’s Apologize. Timbaland was very impressed with Denver — Upon learning that Justin Timberlake had never made it to Denver on his tour, Timberland suggested that they should both return together.
As for Chris Cornell and the new album “Scream”, Timberland described the album as having a “Pink Floyd” inspiration. Cornell performed the entire LP, from the first note to the last, without any pauses between songs.
The brief Verizon Wireless-sponsored West Coast run wraps in Cornell’s hometown of Seattle November 2nd.
photo by Tina Hagerling
by loverlips
..the Ogden in Denver is a cool old theatre style venue. We got there late, but ran into a friend at the front of the line so got a great spot on the upper balcony looking down on the stage. The show was supposed to start at 9 but I don't think Timbaland came out until 10:30 or so....he played a lot of pop songs that he collaborated on; Madonna-4 Minutes, Nelly Furtado-Promiscious, Justin Timberlake-Sexy Back, etc. I happen to like this music but be forewarned, there is NO CC anywhere to be seen or heard for the first hour of the show! TL did a full set and then they turned the stage for Chris. I thought it was going to be more collaborative but never at one time were they on the stage together! When Chris came out the crowd of course went berzerk. It was different than other shows I've seen; I felt like he was more 'business' than usual. He didn't talk much AT ALL. He also didn't break for more than one minute in between each song. I honestly don't know how he sang that much without taking more breaks given that a lot of performers struggle at our altitude. True to his word, the entire album was played....I think I'll like it; there is a lot of rhythm, but it still in CC's 'style'. The icing on the cake for sure was Chris' last song 'Two Drink Minimum'! It was INTENSE, but that was IT. No more encores.....
photo by Tina Hagerling
Never Far Away (thanks allieiswired)
Part Of Me - extract (thanks allieiswired)
Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2008
