Soundgarden – Prudential Center – July 8th – Newark, NJ
Ok so how do we top last night? It’s nights like last night that remind you of why you live in NYC – . Not that this is a bucket list requirement (or even an endorsement) in fact I might even suggest that she had it right by not ever going, but life is in the doing so I was looking for an excuse to get us out there, if not for nothing so she can say that she did it, and to see the different trains like the PATH & the other Light Rails. When I heard about the Soundgarden reunion, I was excited and just the thing to get us out there, especially off the momentum of last night.
The picked a gross and rainy day to reunite, but I had fun showing her all the trains and where I used to live in Jersey City etc. We finally make it over to the arena and get our tickets that ended up being insanely good, we were practically on the stage:
That’s the openers Cohhed and Cambria, who she liked but really are not my thing – I saw them several times a few years ago when Clutch did a tour with them, but just was never converted. (Editor’s Note: – Like literally the next night, the bass player from this band goes off the freaking deep end by casually robbing a Walgreen’s pharmacy of their drugs between soundcheck and showtime)
Something really funny (to some) happened while we were waiting for Soundgarden – I have such a low tolerance for alcohol and we had grabbed a beer before the opening band – one of these gut-busting large beers they sell at arenas – I hadn’t eaten anything, and even though that’s a bad sign, even beyond that for some reason I was just fucking blind drunk from this one beer. I had to get something in my stomach before Soundgarden came on – but you can imagine what my choices were being in a sports arena.
We go to concessions and she suggests we split some nachos as they seemed like the only doable thing on the menu – but these were no ordinary nachos of the stale chips and cheez whiz variety – they had some ridiculous name and came with like everything, and normally they are pretty stingy with that stuff but this kid was literally asking me to say “when” as he seemed to be getting off on building this monstrosity – I was so drunk and laughing hysterically at the absurdity of this that I couldn’t help but egg him on to pile it higher –
Then, he uncovers the pan that contains the CHILI – I swear it was something out of a Mel Brooks film – the stuff was literally gurgling.
It looked downright coagulant as this thick slime was snorting like a wild bull – before Erin could scream “noooooooooo” I was screaming laughing telling him “more! more!, more!” – So we left there with like this 5lb mass of grease and oooze. I was laughing so hard all the way back to our seats that I literally dropped this thing several times.
When we got back to our seats, with this steaming pile of shit between my legs, it was like I had let out the biggest fart in the world – strangers were openly complaining and asking unbidden outloud of “where the fuck is that smell coming from??” – I nearly pissed myself laughing.
Being a 30-something, Soundgarden is one of those bands that hit right when I was in my musical prime. Gone were the days of being spoon-fed what the radio told me I wanted to listen to. College, and the diverse people I met there, introduced me to bands that would truly form my musical taste for the rest of my life. Soundgarden was one of those bands.It has been 14 years since Soundgarden toured together and now they were back with the same lineup, but no new record as of yet, but did play a couple of new songs.
I always loved this band, but one thing that I did start to remember early in the show was how noisy and out of tune their shows always seemed, and not in that chaotic fun way, but in a way that often compromised the entire show.
Fourteen years later that is one thing that has not changed and maybe that’s on purpose, but it just had that same something that prevented it from being a great show.
Setlist:
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Gun
Black Rain
Hands All Over
Jesus Christ Pose
Blow Up the Outside World
My Wave
The Day I Tried to Live
Ugly Truth
Fell on Black Days
Get on the Snake
Rusty Cage
Outshined
Superunknown
Burden in My Hand
Black Hole Sun
Beyond the Wheel
Encore:
Room a Thousand Years Wide
Face Pollution
4th of July
Like Suicide
Slaves & Bulldozers
Erin said she didn’t care too much for the show and that’s probably because of the noisy thing – the silly vibe was still abound as we walked back to the PATH train – so the story wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention this –
This was the midnight train so the is the last train you can take to the city without having to go all the way out to Hoboken first – so everyone wants to get on this train – so from the time we boarded until the time we departed was close to a half an hour of torturous waiting with nowhere to sit, exhausted from the show and wet from the rain – when something so stupid and silly happened that might not sound funny unless you were there under those conditions – but being there – out of sheer break in the monantany – it was hilarious.
Here’s what happened: This group of dudes that were hopelessly Jersey and frat-boy drunk and amped from the show were talking openly about the kind of stuff that you can imagine interests this type of group – like as if they were the only ones on the train, creating a weird vibe. This was led by the loudest and most outspoken Jersey citizen, ever to exist – grossly overweight and clad head to toe in denim and sports attire. He’s so loud and obnoxious that the only mileage I’m getting out of this is that is smiling at me because she knows she’s getting the real Jersey experience we had discussed – but this guy is getting nearly out of control.
When right as he’s about to vent his frustrations about the delay of the train – it finally starts to move which makes most of the train go silent. That’s when he delivered this little gem: In the most over-the-top Jersiest of accents, sung to the tune of Camptown Races – he unleashes with “This train takes it up the ass, do-da, do-da!!” – The last thing we wanted to do was encourage him but we looked at each other and exploded into laughter, that sent the rest of the train into the same domino effect. This was far more entertaining and memorable than the show, maybe we should have never got off the train?
