Saw Chris Cornell tonight - Pete Thorn has an Axe Ultra

H

hunter

Experienced
What an amazing gig.

Chris is singing spot on 100%, I didn't hear any bad notes at all, he sang with passion and his amazing timbre! I would probably give a finger to be able to go on tour with him.

His band was really great, too. In fact I met Pete Thorn outside at the bar before the gig, and we shook hands and had a quick chit chat (I was talking X2 wireless and Axe FX with him). His rig was a CA100 (he has his own signature model), in the rack was an Egnater IE 4 and an Axe FX as well as a Mesa power amp. He used Port City cabs, 2 1x12 for the wet and a 4x12 for the dry. Plenty of pedals on the floor, couldn't tell which. He told me that the Axe is pretty much doing his wet signal. Pete's sound was awesome, playing too, there were really some goose bumps moments for me!

Looking at Pete, I am 90% sure he has same ancestors to the German Bundestrainer Jogi Löw - they look so much alike (http://www.joachimloew.net/phpwcms/index.php)

The other guy played a :13 and a Fender, his sound was more dry and nice as well, but he got a bit on my nerves, with his curly cable and pseudo John Cusack face. However he is a real good rhythm guitarist, I have to admit.

Bass player had a great sound and was doing a bit like flea, but not quite there. Still a very good player and does some good backing vocals too.

Drummer was awesomely tight and groovy, not overplaying, real good guy.

Besides all musicians qualities and great sound, my favourite tune was fell on black days, which was Chris playing acoustic and singing on his own. He plays really well!!!

If I was the producer, I would leave out some of the cue tracks and would aim for a more raw, less polished sound. It was a lot of full on, quite compressed and powering sound, so althought it was sounding perfect, my ears got tired and were craving for more dynamics.

Anyways, overall, this was a great gig. I won't forget also the first 30 minutes where I just had to watch and listen to Chris singing and trying to close my mouth so stunned I was.
 
Yeah,

Pete is actually a featured artist on Fractal's web-site: http://www.fractalaudio.com/artist.html

Pete Thorn was also nice enough to post pictures and details of his rig over at the amps & cabs forum at thegearpage.net. He uses the Ultra for pretty much all of his effects now if I remember correctly.
 
Good show, eh? I've always felt that Cornell is one of the best rock singers out there. Saw him back on the first Audioslave tour and he just killed. (band wasn't too shabby either ;) ) I'll have to check 'em out next time he's touring in the US.
 
Pete is sinasl1 on the forums. You should check out the Eruption cover on youtube (he used a tube amp for it) and the Van Halen patch he did for the Axe-FX. He's an amazing player with a great ear.
 
I saw Chris Cornell at Red Rocks. His first song was "Jesus Christ Pose".

How does a mere mortal even attempt that song, let alone OPEN with it. Chris is amazing.
 
They should have never broke up Soundgarden. What a waste.
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I disagree. I actually like his present band MUCH better, musically. Also, Chris Cornell wrote all of those songs, anyway. In my opinion, his band is better now.
 
famished said:
They should have never broke up Soundgarden. What a waste.
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We'll never know how it would have been, but I think they did the right thing. I loved Soundgarden, but where else could they have taken it? Sometimes it's best to let your achievements stand and not try to milk the success to death. CC has made some amazing music since Soundgarden that would have never seen the light of day had they tried to continue on. I think an artist has a small window of opportunity to take one success and turn it into another success, and if they hold on too long to the first success, they may lose that chance of having the other. Like if Kurt Cobain had not passed and Nirvana had continued on into the late 90s before finally breaking up, I doubt Dave Grohl would have been as successful with Foo Fighters as he had been. It's tricky to decide when is the right time to jump ship and try something new. What if Led Zep had called it a day after Physical Graffitti? Maybe Robert Plant or Jimmy Page would have gone on in the late 70s to start another history-changing band instead of just churning out 2 last albums (mediocre IMO by comparison to earlier stuff) and then hitting the creative skids in the 80s after Bonham's death. Only within that past couple of years has Plant (with Alison Kraus) done something as musically intriguing as the early Zep stuff. Interesting to think about....
 
Resonant Alien said:
famished said:
They should have never broke up Soundgarden. What a waste.
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We'll never know how it would have been, but I think they did the right thing. I loved Soundgarden, but where else could they have taken it? Sometimes it's best to let your achievements stand and not try to milk the success to death. CC has made some amazing music since Soundgarden that would have never seen the light of day had they tried to continue on. I think an artist has a small window of opportunity to take one success and turn it into another success, and if they hold on too long to the first success, they may lose that chance of having the other. Like if Kurt Cobain had not passed and Nirvana had continued on into the late 90s before finally breaking up, I doubt Dave Grohl would have been as successful with Foo Fighters as he had been. It's tricky to decide when is the right time to jump ship and try something new. What if Led Zep had called it a day after Physical Graffitti? Maybe Robert Plant or Jimmy Page would have gone on in the late 70s to start another history-changing band instead of just churning out 2 last albums (mediocre IMO by comparison to earlier stuff) and then hitting the creative skids in the 80s after Bonham's death. Only within that past couple of years has Plant (with Alison Kraus) done something as musically intriguing as the early Zep stuff. Interesting to think about....
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Good thinking there! There are other examples though, who made it on- an ongoing well, U2 are one of them, Maiden, AC/DC (except for the singer change). You can argue whether you like those bands, but it can be done.

Obviously the players in his band a far superior to Soundgarden, both technically and tone wise, but still I preferred their old sound as it was more raw and simple than the massive wall of sound you have now, but that's matter of taste. No doubt has Chris made his way well without the other guys, in the end he was indeed by far the least replaceable of the bunch.
 
hunter said:
Good thinking there! There are other examples though, who made it on- an ongoing well, U2 are one of them, Maiden, AC/DC (except for the singer change). You can argue whether you like those bands, but it can be done.

Obviously the players in his band a far superior to Soundgarden, both technically and tone wise, but still I preferred their old sound as it was more raw and simple than the massive wall of sound you have now, but that's matter of taste. No doubt has Chris made his way well without the other guys, in the end he was indeed by far the least replaceable of the bunch.
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Good counter-point. There are a lot of bands that had a "mid-career slump" where a lot of people wrote them off, but have recently come back strong - like R.E.M., U2, Rush...
 
If you like CC, check out Ian Thornley, either in his first band Big Wreck, or his solo material under the name Thornley. I think he has a similar but stronger voice to Chris, and he is obsessed with finding great guitar tones, and blending several together in the same track a la Jimmy Page. I especially like Big Wreck's second album, the Pleasure and the Greed. I think Ian would be in heaven with the Axe-fx.
 
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