Soundgarden - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (San Francisco)

You may have been aware that Soundgarden has reunited and started to tour after about a 15-year absence. You may have also been aware that they held a contest through Talenthouse a month or two ago to select photographers for each of their upcoming shows.

The contest, as I feared, was sort of a popularity contest... meaning: some people who were chosen as winners had very "meh" work, but 400 of their friends voted for them.

Anyway, I didn't win. I made my peace with it and moved on with life.

But last week I spent an afternoon at the pool with Mike, Danny, and Angela... and as I hopped out to dry off, I received a voicemail from Soundgarden management asking me to shoot their show on the 21st. The winner for that date had to back out, and I came "highly recommended" from Talenthouse. Go figure.

The show rocked, and was everything I hoped it would be. I never got to see them perform before they broke up in 1997, so the shoot was a big deal for me on that level as well. Not to mention the opener was the Mars Volta.

Because I shot for the band directly, my images are technically their property. I will post some killer photos here very soon, but I made an agreement that I would wait until they have a chance to post my photos on their websites first.

So... check back here in less than 24 hours!

UPDATE: After 4 days, Soundgarden finally posted my images online. So, now it's my turn!

Photos:

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Matt Cameron of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Kim Thayil of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster. 

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster.