Brien Overly
It’s a tedious task these days to turn on the TV or rock radio and find a band that isn’t a clich√©d, fresh-out-of-high-school upstart.
Lucky for rock enthusiasts everywhere, Audioslave is making their best music ever now without severing ties to their colorful pasts.
Born of the ashes of political rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine and grungy Soundgarden, they have what other “super groups” lack: originality.
Setting themselves apart from comparable counterpart, Velvet Revolver, Audioslave has become a new entity.
There’s new chemistry among bassist Tim Commerford, front man Chris Cornell, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk than any they shared as members of other bands.
Playing at Long Beach Arena on Nov. 18, Audioslave was greeted by a packed venue of fans of all ages.
First up, L.A. natives 30 Seconds to Mars opened on a progressive, alt-art-rock note, squeezing five songs into the most epic 25-minute span of the night.
While the less than radio friendly band played to a sometimes less than interested crowd, they won over more than a few new fans.
Front man Jared Leto sang his heart out from the beginning of their set to the end. Showing an impressive vocal range along with an ability to genuinely emote with his voice, Leto is the ultimate defiance of people who believe in stereotypes about who is and isn’t allowed to be in rock bands.
As Leto poured his soaring vocals into songs like “Attack” from their latest album, A Beautiful Lie, guitarist Tomo Milicevic laid down equally fluid and captivating chords like a guitar god in the making.
Up next, South African nu-metalheads Seether took stage to a more receptive audience, but didn’t match the dynamic charisma 30 brought.
Singer Shaun Morgan adhered more strictly to the disengaged, distant stage demeanor of ’90s grunge than even Chris Cornell himself.
He sang the original solo version of “Broken,” from before it was re-recorded as a duet with him and now ex-girlfriend, singer Amy Lee of Evanescence.
As the anticipation built and congealed in the air with the thick smells of sweat and beer, Audioslave appeared to give fans their $50-plus worth of a show.
Exploding onto the smoky stage to “Set It Off,” the band kicked off their set on an attention-demanding, respect-commanding note.
Cornell growled into his microphone and Morello masturbated his guitar in a blur of complex chords and frenzied shredding.
After the raised fist-worthy “Be Yourself”-as Cornell stomped across the stage, owning every inch of it with the presence of a timeless classic rocker- he and the band slowed for “Like a Stone,” playing to a pit full of glowing lighters and cell phones.
Taking a break from Audioslave repertoire to pull a more obscure arrow from their musical quiver, the band took to covering select Temple of the Dog songs before breaking into Rage hits “Sleep Now in the Fire” and “Testify.”
Cornell’s smoldering, brooding personality starkly contrasted with that of in-your-face Rage front man, Zack De La Rocha.
After leaving stage for a quick breather, Cornell returned with acoustic guitar in hand to play the other half of his band’s lineage.
Strumming away to Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Cornell then brought Morgan out to have the Seether singer perform “Fell on Black Days” with him for four captivationg minutes.
However, their set felt bogged down by trying to appease Rage fans and, to a lesser extent, Soundgarden fans.
They played the lyrically poetic song, “I am the Highway,” before closing with the fast-rocking “Cochise,” the song that first put the band on the map in 2002.
They are the best link we have to everything that was great about the last decade of rock, while still being a catalyst for change and musical innovation.
Audioslave and its members are rock as it was and rock as it always should be.
Period.