Soundgarden from row 1 in Portland, OR
 

I was lucky enough to see Soundgarden perform a 26 song set with my hands resting on center stage on Feb 6th 2013. It was pretty amazing and special. Ben's bass is not slung nearly as low as it once was in the 90's. The sound was great. I was not expecting to see him launch his Fender headstock first into one of him cabinets, tearing a hole in it.

If anyone is interested I can post some pics/vids. I Outshined (only missed the first few notes).

He's still doing the headstock thing? I saw them on their initial reunion tour in SF, and Ben totally spazzed out in the middle of My Wave and started jabbing his headstock in his cabs. Then when they were done (after encores and everything) he smashed a beer bottle over the cab, and knocked the whole thing over. Still not sure what that was about, he must go through a lot of cabs...

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I'd imagine a cab a night must get pretty expensive...

I think it's a theme with bassists for Soundgarden. I've seen Shepherd do that same schtick before, plus I saw them on the first leg of the Louder Than Love tour when Jason Everman was playing bass. During the first encore he goes nuts & throws his bass up into the ceiling of this small club....tiles fall down, lights break...club management is not happy. Afterwards the band was at the merch table signing autographs & you could tell they were all looking at him going "Really dude?"

Though I like Ben Shepherd, I've always preferred Hiro Yamamoto.

Outshined live in Portland, OR on Feb 6, 2013....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg-9q8dCQZs

Is Matt Cameron drumming with them again?

No disrespect to any of their bassists, but Cameron and Cornell really made that band, IMHO.

Unless I'm mistaken, but as far as I know Matt has never stopped playing drums. Around 10 yrs ago or so he took over drums duties from Jack Irons in Pearl Jam though.

Yeah that's what I meant. I knew Cameron had taken up with Pearl Jam but didn't know if he was back with Soundgarden now or splitting time between the two bands or what.

Thanks.

At the Feb 7th show in Seattle Matt had his son come out and play drums for a song/part of a song. I wasn't there for that one but that's what it said in a review of the show. As well as Mike McCready from PJ joining for a song.

Cool. I always kinda felt like Cameron was slumming it when he played with Pearl Jam, cause I thought Soundgarden was a so much better band. Although I'm sure his bank statements would say otherwise. ;)

+1. Ben's a solid player but Yamamoto pushed the boundaries IMHO.

Saw em in Long Island, NY last Summer, they kicked Arse and sounded better than ever.

Watching Ben launch his Fender P bass headstock first into one of his cabinets was great. Especially since it tore a good size hole in the screen/cover.

watch until the very end and you will see what I am talking about....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbT6A3RWVMc

Ben is s strage man, when i saw him last he was giving the Sky the middle finger most of the night... He walks around completely out of rythm like Frankenstien but he sure as hell can hold down the groove.

:rollno:
That poor bass!
The grille cloth...
I wonder if he punctured a speaker too.

Oh, Ben..:eek:

Awesome! I just missed them coming through NYC.

PJ basically lets him do whatever he wants. If you ever see some live footage of songs you've heard forever on the radio you'll hear some really cool drum fills and random stuff that isn't on the normal recordings.

Matt doesn't get to shine as much in PJ as he does in SG, but he's still outshining most other drummers.

Agreed that Soundgarden are better than they have ever been. Ben is a large part of that band too, as are Matt and Kim. Kind of like Zeppelin in my mind - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Take either of them out and it just isn't Soundgarden anymore. Hiro was great too, but IMO it was a quantum leap from Louder than Love to Badmotorfinger, and Ben was the catalyst for that.

youtuber moussecasey filmed the whole show at the Irving Plaza. Decent quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwvNnzrPZms

Agreed Badmotorfinger has some profound songs on it & the whole album is good.

Ben completly butchered up that tune. There are at least a dozen missed notes.
It's like he isn't prepared or just dosent remember what to do.
(Room A Thousand Years Wide)