Chris Cornell with support from Fantastic Negrito
Sunday 24th April 2016 – Ulster Hall, Belfast
Last Sunday, Chris Cornell sold out the Ulster Hall on the Belfast date of his worldwide Acoustic Higher Truth Tour. As this was Cornell’s first Belfast show, the night was an eagerly awaited debut appearance for both long-time fans of Soundgarden and Cornell’s solo material. A raw acoustic show was in store for the audience, bringing the solo artist’s typically rough and gritty demeanour down to the communal level of the album.
Support came from acoustic blues artist Fantastic Negrito, the performance moniker of Xavier Dphrepaulezz. Clearly influenced by the rock ‘n’ roll and funk movements, Fantastic Negrito displays a unique fusion of these genres with a personal emotion through his flawless falsetto and experimentation with dynamics. This soundscape produced an ethereal effect, transporting the audience to a speakeasy bar in 1930s USA, where one might expect a lot more dancing, drinking, and indoor smoking as more suitable to the general vibe of this performance. Throughout the set, Fantastic Negrito demonstrates a phenomenal captivation over the audience, infecting rhythm into each person and unconsciously urging us to clap along. Although the set was disappointingly short at around 20 minutes, this artist is one to be remembered for his performative brilliance and profoundly genuine sensibility.
At this stage, all seats were filled as the audience waited patiently for the headline act. Before long, Chris Cornell exhibits what might be the most overpowering entrance to an acoustic stage. His presence dazzles the audience as he walks and retraces the stage, and stares his fans up and down through welcoming cheers before sitting down to his acoustic guitar and microphone. After a short introduction – including various expositions of how excited he has been for this debut Belfast show – Cornell begins into a track from his latest album called ‘Before We Disappear’. A soft existential ballad to set the tone for the night, this track features the alterity that is expected from Cornell while appealing to fans of traditional pop music. Although veering from the obscurity of earlier in his career, this new material still wields a mesmerising effect that goes down well.
Spanning from old to new material, Cornell aims to please by breaking out ‘Can’t Change Me’ and ‘When I’m Down’ from his debut solo album Euphoria Morning – singing along to his personal vinyl copy of the latter – along with an exceptional acoustic version of ‘Fell On Black Days’ from Soundgarden’s landmark album Superunknown. Personally speaking, this was the highlight of Cornell’s set, as it proved to be an incomparable opportunity to hear an alternative take on one of the greatest grunge songs ever written, overlayed fantastically by Brian Gibson’s cello eccentricities. This expansion of his setlist demonstrates how relevant Cornell’s roots in the alternative rock scene remain today, and the adaptability of the show’s acoustic mode to suit his variegated styles. We are then welcomed to pay tribute to the late Prince with an evocative cover of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, showing the influence he had on Cornell. Additionally, we hear another more comical cover song with title and lyrics adapted to suit the current US political situation: Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’ Bad’.
A notable inclusion in the set was ‘Josephine’, a song that Cornell mentions took him thirteen years to write for his wife. As such, the audience is taken on this temporal journey through the lyrical and stylistic variety that fuses the old with the modern. This love song provides a window into Cornell’s personal relationships, and we receive a very private knowledge of the man external from his artistry; the appeal is that we are able to know his pain and his happiness through this song. His voice expounds a sense of overflow both lyrically and melodiously, and almost bursts from the body as loudly and emotively as it did at the start of his career. Accordingly, Cornell approaches the end of his set with the climactic Soundgarden anthem ‘Blow Up The Outside World’.
Responding to the encore cries almost immediately after leaving the stage, Cornell returns to play his renowned film theme ‘Seasons’ from the soundtrack of 1992’s Singles, and more recently Man Of Steel. However, the true highpoint came with the incredibly risky cover of ‘A Day in the Life’ by The Beatles. This song typically requires an erratic orchestra, or at the very least an entire band. Nevertheless, Cornell and his cellist achieve a surprisingly astonishing version with just two musicians. We then hear a song that literally required no introduction – it would have went unheard anyway, with the crowd’s overarching shrieks – Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’. Many of the song’s trademark psychedelic elements and resonant bass effects were achieved through experimenting with the cello, and gave the impression of listening to the original version, which justifies that Cornell’s status as a musical experimenter remains even after all these years. Ending for a second time with the title track from ‘Higher Truth’, Cornell finishes on a loud note and loops every sound he can get his hands on to create a climactic finale that epitomises the effect his music has had on every member of the audience.
