Luckily however, when a group of gifted musical maestros capitalizes on that fact, well something magical can happen, and Monday July 18th must have been full of enchantment, for I ended up watching Red Rocks Amphitheater turn into a beautiful stone Soundgarden.   That’s right, 15 years after what was considered to be their final live performance in Hawaii, Soundgarden is back and more incredible than ever!  Having re-formed and following the March 2011 release of their first ever, full-length live album, “Live on I-5,” percussionist Matt Cameron, vocalist/guitarist Chris Cornell, bassist Ben Shepherd, and guitarist Kim Thayil decided to take some time off of working on the NEW Soundgarden studio album to tour over the summer and fully get their groove back, and guess what, it’s working!Wow, what an extraordinary performance, and what a way to make a dream come true, for believe it or not, out of all of the concerts that I’ve ever attended or photographed or reviewed in my lifetime, Soundgarden was sadly not on the list, but what a way to make up for it!Playing off their vast repertoire of songs from albums such as, “Down on the Upside”, “Badmotorfinger”, “Superunknown”, and even “Louder Than Love,” the guys from Soundgarden didn’t even give the crowd a chance to catch a glimpse of the supernatural phenomenon that was being created all around them, let alone give them enough time to breathe.Bringing up yet another important part of the evening, and that being that while the crowd was engrossed in the complete and utter joy of listening to songs like “Spoonman”, “My Wave”, and “Pretty Noose”, the band was also mirroring that feeling of delight right back at the audience, and for no other reason than they were actually having FUN performing together again!After all the drama and bad vibes that went with their break-up, this will hopefully become a new trend that continues for these Northwestern Rockers.  As I know that not only could I use another decade of new Soundgarden songs, but also after finally being able to see them live, I know that I’m going to need to go and see them again, and soon!It’s a show that I’ll not soon be able to forget.

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