SOUNDGARDEN

Live on I-5

[A&M]

ARCHIVAL

Whether you’re in a marriage or a band, breaking up is hard to do—and lots of business gets left unfinished. Grunge powerhouse Soundgarden recorded several shows on the West Coast leg of its 1996 tour with an eye toward compiling its first-ever live album, but when the group announced its breakup the following April those plans were abandoned. With Soundgarden’s recent reunion, this lost fragment of its history has been revived—Live on I-5 has arrived, albeit 14 years later than expected. Better late than never. By the time these 17 tracks were captured over the course of six shows in November and December 1996, the band was already being driven apart by pressures both internal and external—but the evidence here suggests that the foursome’s unity and ferocity as a performing unit never flagged.

Opening with a crashing “Spoonman,” Live on I-5 (named for California’s Interstate 5) proceeds through a relentless 78 minutes of furious hard rock. A volcanic “Outshined” burns with righteous anger, “Boot Camp” materializes from a seething two-minute jam on the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter,” and lead singer Chris Cornell graciously dedicates “Rusty Cage” to Johnny Cash (who had recently covered it). Matt Cameron is the MVP here, bashing out his characteristically complex time signatures with a boldness that most drummers couldn’t approach on a simple 4/4 beat. Now that the group is at work on its first new studio album since 1996’s Down on the Upside, perhaps Live on I-5 will stand not as postscript but as prelude. –Chris Neal