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For a brief moment, the Pearl Jam concert at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles last night, witnessed the reunion of Temple of the Dog. Chris Cornell joined the band onstage to perform the 1991 hit song, “Hunger Strike.” The performance included all the Temple of the Dog principal members, including Cornell, Mike McCready, Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, as well as Eddie Vedder, the background vocalist. It was the first time they had all been together since 2003 when the Seattle grunge superpowers united to perform Reach Down and Hunger Strike in California.
But there’s more to the story. According to Rolling Stone other Soundgarden members, including bassist Ben Shepherd and guitarist Kim Thayil were at the show, along with Cornell, so they could check out Matt Cameron, drummer, pounding on the skins with the new band. The meeting is the first time that the entire band has been publicly seen together in over a decade. Recently Rolling Stone talked with Thayil regarding the possibility of a reunion of Soundgarden and the possibility for fans to get access to unreleased tracks of the band.
Temple of the Dog formed as a one off tribute band after the death of Andrew Wood, singer for Mother Love Bone. Cornell had been a roommate with Wood, and Ament and Gossard were Mother Love Bone members before Pearl Jam was formed after Wood’s death. Eddie Vedder, who had just been hired to front for Pearl Jam, contributed the background vocals as well as splitting the duties of lead singing on the album Hunger Strike, the only album released by Temple of the Dog.
If the reunion performance along with Soundgarden members present in the audience wasn’t enough grunge, Pearl Jam did have another Seattle surprise for Los Angeles. Jerry Cantrell, guitarist for Alice in Chains, was welcomed onto the stage by Pearl Jam during Alive. McCready abandoned his guitar so that Cantrell could do his solo work. When the show ended, all involved bowed to the audience arm in arm.
