Slaves to the sound
November 01, 2005
By: Rachel R. Briere, Sun Staff
Lowell Sun Online

Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell gives a haunting stare to the crowd during last night’s concert at the Tsongas Arena. SUN/JULIA MALAKIE

LOWELL -- Take the leftovers of the angst-filled early-90s Seattle grunge, toss it in a blender with the political activism of pre-Bush rhetoric and pour it on the rocks to get a top-shelf rock band called Audioslave.

Comprising the crumbs of Rage Against the Machine and a dash of Sound Garden, this rock super group took over the Tsongas Arena last night with a double shot of energy. An almost full capacity crowd of more than 6,800 haunted the venue on Halloween in a fit of fury to hear this music mixture.

Lead singer Chris Cornell took the ocean-pictured center stage surrounded by guitarist Tom Morello, bassists Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk. Ripping into their set, Cornell's melodic voice entranced the sweat-drenched crowd to wave their hands rapidly.

Promoting the sequel to their self-titled first album, Audioslave laced their opening songs with their latest single, “Doesn't Remind Me.”

Guitar maverick Morello's heavy riffs ripped into an impassioned guitar solo on the self-empowering “Be Yourself.”

Taking fans through a not-so-forgotten yearbook of tunes, like the raucous “Rusty Cage” and spiritual “Spoonman” the band's original following became ecstatic on the floor opening up to a fury of fists. Morello's guitar whined along with Cornell's deep impassioned vocals.

“Everyone hold up their cell phones, it's not lighters anymore. This is the new school ” said Cornell.

The band played their eerie ballad “Like a Stone” and the crowd erupted into a killer karaoke. Then, in dramatic Hollywood fashion, the band whipped the awed audience into a frenzy with the Rage Against the Machine mantra, an instrumental “Bulls on Parade” and the maniac “Sleep Now in the Fire.” Topping it off with a turbulent version of “Testify.”

Closing out the chaotic concert with “Shadow,” Cornell promised he would return, and that he did. Walking to the stage with acoustic guitar underhand, Cornell donned a hockey mask to lead the crowd in a solo version of “Black Hole Sun.” Under the spotlight, Cornell's achy voice echoed throughout the venue, receiving thunderous applause.

As the encore unfolded, the rest of the band joined Cornell on stage for a raging version of “Show Me How to Live” and “Killing in the Name of” that left the whole place sweating. Cracking into “Cochise,” Cornell reached to the bowels of his belly to belt out the last rock ballad of the evening.

Rockers 30 Seconds To Mars opened with sirens blazing and heavy electric guitar feedback reminiscent of the days of Nirvana. Taking the stage basking in the haze of black lights, the band opened with their title track off their latest album It's a Beautiful Lie.

Lead singer Jared Leto shed his pretty-boy actor image to play the role of rock star. He rushed the crowd cloaked in crisp white and caked-on clown makeup creating quite the buzz.

“This is the best crowd of the entire (expletive deleted) tour,” the Massachusetts native screamed running throughout the scattered masses. Pumping his fist hard into the smoke-filled air, Leto egged the seated crowd on to get to their feet. Launching into an energetic version of their new single “Attack” Leto's haunting screams invoked the passions of the crowd launching an outbreak of fury-filled mosh-pits.

Rock-radio favorites Seether took the stage in true cross-dressing spirit with fishnets and mini-skirts, that would only be acceptable on Halloween to the mass of metal-moshers. Rocking into a set laced with cover tunes from Pantera's “Walk” to the Deftones “Change” the hard-rock group dedicated their set to the late Dave Williams of Drowning Pool and Dime Bag Darryl of Pantera. Seether pleased the crowd with their radio hit “Remedy” and their 2004 Grammy-nominated duet “Broken” before heading backstage.

Rachel R. Briere's e-mail address is rbriere@lowellsun.com.