Nineties grungers reunited with help from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and several guest rockers for a one night stand to honor their lineage in a city responsible for the creation of a seminal genre. Check out the video.
The night started off with three classical pieces performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra that each in their own way payed some homage to the birth of grunge. The last of these three, called “Waking the Horizon” was a composition by none other than Mike McCready, of Pearl Jam, which featured McCready on guitar and some virtuosic cello work. The first composition, called “Ashes”, was inspired by Kurt Cobain and written by Yann Robin, the second was called “Beyond Much Difference”, and was written by Angelique Poteat, inspired by Pearl Jam.
The program from Friday night was the fifth annual installment of Sonic Evolution, a project birthed by Ludovic Morlot, who is the director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
What followed after the intermission was pretty stunning. The symphony sat in for “River of Deceit”, and “I Don’t Know Anything”, and then left the stage to an all-star cast of Seattle region musicians such as Kurt Virant who sang Mad Season’s “Wake Up”. Chris Cornell then graced the stage with McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament both also of Pearl Jam. If only Eddie Vedder had been there, it would have been a full Temple of the Dog reunion.
Layne Staley, the lead singer of Mad Season as well as Alice In Chains, made a posthumous appearance for the concert’s finale, which was “All Alone”. The vocal track was a taped recording. McCready then spoke about how the evening was meant to pay tribute for Staley and his enormous contribution to the music of Seattle and the world.
Staley passed away in 2002 after a long and tumultuous path through addiction and substance abuse. It had been the dream of Morlot to bring back the music of Mad Season, and that dream was lived in waking last Friday.
Check out the video below.
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