Page 36 - 1994

·Dl
d r- l· g ts
r- th - d e e
Greek Theatre, singer Chris Cornell and company finally received their due - ·a thunderous greeting from a capacity crowd of prime-time primed MTV kids. But the cheers were never matched in intensity by the band's performance.
Fighting city of Berkeley sound ordi· nances and what might have been their own diffidence, Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, bass player Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron played a perfunc- tory show that covered almost two hours and 20 songs, many culled from the new album. There were a few incandescent moments, but nothing white-hot. Mostly, it
felt as though the group was going through the motions.
Cornell, wearing a plain white T-shirt, black shorts and boots, complained about the volume restrictions placed on the band by Berkeley officials. If you were perched at the rear of the amphitheater's lawn seating and heard the wisps of sound that made it up that far, you might have complained, too.
As vocalists go, Cornell's swelling, hair- raising howl might have persuaded Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant to consider a ca- reer less fraught with nodes and polyps. Cornell on a good day can probably out-
ian lfrancisco
TEBOO
dgarden·lhan Fury:atthe Greek
PAGED6
PAGE D2 PAGES D4, D5
screech the guys from Nazareth and Deep Purple. He added a generous helping of rhythm guitar during most of the set, cre- ating a nice noisy bed for Thayil's sludge- . and-squeal attack.
In the middle of the set, Cornell even went solo, accompanying himself on a qui- etly anguished song that he recorded with Temple of the Dog, his side project with fellow Seattle superstar Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
"Jesus Christ·Pose" from Soundgar- den's "Badmotorfinger" album opened
ROCK: PageD3Col.1
A Spirited 9iai Music
Festival · Young musicians shine with
Tilson Thomas' direction
BYJOSHUA KOSMAN
Chronido Music Critic
Ojai
I n Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco
will be getting not only a formidable conductor but a communicative educator who can infuse an entire musical body with his ideas and his sense of commit· ment.
That much was clearly evident during the weekend-long Ojai Music Festival here, where Tilson Thomas is this year's music director, and the New World Sym- phony- theMiami-basedtrainingorches- tra that he has led since founding it in 1987 - is the resident orchestra.
The first three of the festival's five events - orchestral concerts Friday night and Saturday afternoon and a chamber program Saturday night - revealed a group as notable for its energy and sense of adventure as for its considerable musi- cal abilities.
TELEVISION
.· THEATER LISTINGS
MOVIE LISTINGS
Those are to this