temple-of-the-dog-tour-2016

Temple of the Dog (Pearl Jam + Soundgarden) Announce First EVER Tour

Perhaps unbeknownst to many, grunge is one of my favourite genres, and certainly one that was unbelievably valuable and meaningful for me as I was growing up. Bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Mudhoney were among the first to ever really get to me as a 12 or 13-year-old, and that whole Seattle grunge movement really became the very first ‘scene’ I ever heavily got into. Fifteen years later I’m writing this article on a music website owned by yours truly, so I guess you could say I owe these guys a lot.

One of my favourite albums from that era was a lesser known one, Temple of the Dog, by a band of the same name. This was a short lived supergroup featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden among others. The grunge scene had a fair few of these bands and mini projects, mostly existing before the big bands took centre stage, like Green River and Mother Love Bone, with others, like Mad Season, existing as side projects during grunge’s heyday. TOTD was initially created by Chris Cornell as a tribute to Andrew Wood, the singer of Mother Love Bone, who died of a heroin overdose in 1990. The band recorded one album, released in 1991, and while it wasn’t an immediate success, the explosive release of Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten in 1992 brought more attention to the album. They played one proper concert ever, along with a few opening slots and festival sets. In the time since, a smattering of short sets and brief performances of songs like Reach Down and Hunger Strike have occasionally appeared during Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Audioslave sets, and most recently in 2015 at a one-off Mad Season reunion show gig.

Today has come the incredibly exciting news that Temple of the Dog will be embarking on their first ever tour, in celebration of the album’s 25th anniversary. The complete original lineup will be performing; that is, Chris Cornell on vocals and Pearl Jam members Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron, Mike McCready and Stone Gossard on bass, drums, lead guitar and rhythm guitar respectively. While Eddie Vedder contribution some backing vocals and guitar to the record, his appearance has not been confirmed – however, I can say it’s pretty damn likely he’ll appear on stage, at least once throughout the tour. They’ll be playing five shows in November, in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and of course, Seattle.

The band released this video with the announcement, which shows old footage and all tour dates:

Tickets go on sale on Friday, July 29 for those lucky enough to be in USA at the time – details can be found here. For members of the Ten Club (PJ’s fan club), Soundgarden and Chris Cornell mailing lists will have access to a pre-sale on the 27th. The band are also reissuing the album on CD and vinyl. It will be available on September 29, and you can pre-order it now.

Image: PBS