Soundgarden at Sydney Entertainment Centre

"When BIG DAY OUT was born 20 years ago, a new wave of music was emerging from the American north-west. At the crest of that wave was one of the most incendiary heavy rock bands of our time: SOUNDGARDEN. It’s been fifteen years since they last graced our shores and the first time since 1997 SOUNDGARDEN will again play outside of the USA! Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd – the Seattle foursome known as SOUNDGARDEN have chosen the BIG DAY OUT to mark their triumphant return to the international stage and we are thrilled to welcome them back. “This is one reunited band that can pick up right where it left off.” (New York Times, July 2011) SOUNDGARDEN first hit the US Top 40 with their third album, 1991’s Badmotorfinger. In 1994, they played their first BIG DAY OUT – two months later, their biggest success, Superunknown, would be unleashed.Home to Spoonman, Black Hole Sun and Fell on Black Days, Superunknown would hit No.1 in Australia and New Zealand,
win two Grammys, sell five million copies in the US and earn a place among the greatest albums of the ’90s. In 1997, SOUNDGARDEN returned for their second BIG DAY OUT on the back of their fifth album, Down on the Upside – home to Burden in My Hands, Blow Up the Outside World and Pretty Noose. Unfortunately, we were all but the last to see them play – in February of that year, the band split.
In their dozen years apart, Chris Cornell joined members of Rage Against the Machine in Audioslave and released three solo albums, while Matt Cameron became drummer for fellow Seattle heroes Pearl Jam.
In 2010, Cornell took to Twitter to speak directly to SOUNDGARDEN loyalists the world over, “Knights of the Soundtable ride again!” he tweeted. Fans across the world stood to attention as the bands website
launched again after the 12 year hiatus. A secret show in Seattle soon followed, as did a headlining spot at Chicago’s Lollapalooza,a retrospective titled Telephantasm and the bands first live record titled Live on I-5. SOUNDGARDEN toured in the US this past American Summer for the first time since 1997.SOUNDGARDEN are “truly brutal and inventive” says The Los Angeles Times of their show earlier this year at LA’s The Forum.“Cornell and band attacked opposite poles of rock music – the sex-god wail and drone-based jams of Led Zeppelin and the black-tar scrim of peers like The Melvins – and made something new from both.”“So, here was SOUNDGARDEN at full power once again. And was that ever something to see… a shockingly great performance.” (National Post, July 2011) A new album is in the works for 2012: “There are some things that sound similar in a sense to Down on the Upside, so it’s kind of like picking up where we left off,” Kim Thayil told Guitar Player.""It’s been too long as far as I’m concerned,” Chris Cornell told The Advertiser of the band’s return to Australia. We couldn’t agree more. For those who were there the first time, and for those who only know the legend, BIG DAY OUT presents the one, the only: SOUNDGARDEN."