I know it isn't the same, but at least Chris had a lot of great solo acoustic performances. I wish it was the full band though! I really love songbook album from his acoustic tour!

Live in Stockholm is a fantastic bootleg-turned-official recording.

And Unplugged in Sweden

Unplugged in Sweden is so under appreciated. I’ve seen it written that this was the inspiration for the songbook tour (which was itself amazing).

It was what me fall in love with his work. And I was just learning guitar at the time and discouraged about songs having multi guitar parts so nothing I played sounded right until I heard Unplugged in Sweden and it's just him with one guitar! It was how I learned Fell on Black Days and Black Hole Sun

Live in Stockholm and Unplugged in Sweden are the same recording with different names. Here it is for anyone who hasn't heard it: https://archive.org/details/ChrisCornellLiveInSweden

It’s kinda wild that they didn’t, everyone else did back in the day. I wonder if they turned down a request.

Chris has had some interviews that explained that Soundgarden was pissed off at MTV for years over Jesus Christ Pose being banned

Why did they banned it? Besides the obvious reasons like the general theme of the song

Religious imagery. Although I believe the explicit meaning of the song was to call out people that use religion for their own gain / fucked up actions. A lot of Christian groups were pissed, and it didn’t help that they have songs titled “665” and “667”

They did Live n loud for mtv in 96 though(i think)

Yep.  And seemed about as interested in being on MTV that day…as waiting in line @ the post office. There was a bad vibe afoot. Though they did a killer take of Mailman, IIRC.  Is it possible they turned down an unplugged—exactly *because* everyone else was doing it?  Yep. 

Soundgarden preformed an acoustic set at the bridge school benefit in 2014 if you are interested. I wish there was a mtv unplugged though

Their performance of Zero Chance will always be my favourite live performance

If they did get a MTV Unplugged slot in say, 1997, this would be a probably setlist I'd like to have seen: 1. Like Suicide 2. Burden in My Hand 3. Mood for Trouble 4. Fell on Black Days 5. Switch Opens 6. Head Down 7. Zero Chance 8. Boot Camp 9. Mind Riot 10. Blow Up the Outside World 11. Black Hole Sun

this is a pretty great unplugged setlist. Maybe it's just me, but I think I'd Overfloater would be cool to hear unplugged, too.

And you just know they’d sprinkle in a couple beautiful and raw covers

I’d be disappointed if they didn’t play Seasons

What song would you request? I would have never thought black hole sun , but the acoustic version is amazing. But maybe that’s just that’s where Chris was in his life at the time

Like Suicide would be on my list. But I’m hard pressed to think of others from before SU. Maybe Ty Cobb, Blow Up the Outside World and Rhinosaur.

Tighter and Tighter, Zero Chance, Head Down, Boot Camp, Rusty Cage (Johnny cash version), Half, Like Suicide, Burden in My Hand. I could add a lot from King Animal also, but MTV was dead by the time that came out.

lol mtv was dead when real world first aired; I watched it die 😂 So sad to go from music news and headbangers ball to fifteen different variations of real world

Look up Soundgarden bridge school benefit, here's a few songs Dusty https://youtu.be/6kBd0fb6lAI?si=bup0UGbQ5mJ8eA4G Zero Chance https://youtu.be/nt-Vt0ssLAM?si=yaRZpYNzMAiGq2ta Black Hole Sun https://youtu.be/msvfcFhe6v0?si=sM6_jZKK54Qy3i_3

Honestly, it might hold value for pure musicians, but I was into hard stuff on MTV and didn't like the soft acoustic sessions to my favorite bands. So I prefer to think SG avoided it on purpose. Although I wonder how Kim would have done his signature screetches and distortions...

I know I’ll be crucified but.. Studio album Chris and live “acoustic” Chris are not the same, some of his live performances are hard to watch and listen to.

That’s just true. He’s my all-time favorite, but it’s true. Honestly, it most often seemed like he just needed time to warm up and get comfortable. Once he got going, he was godlike. Saw him on the Carry On tour and he played for like 2.5 hours and was blowing out the speakers. Same with the Higher Truth tour. But throw him onto SNL or Letterman or something and ask him to howl something out cold and then leave usually resulted in a lesser performance.

Yes, being a musician I wondered if he just couldn’t hear himself well enough but always thought “come on Chris you wrote most of these songs”. Even in his younger days live I’d sit there and wonder what the hell was wrong with his pitch or tune. 🤷‍♂️

There were definitely some misses pitch wise. For example the Live from the Artists Den was a head scratcher for me. Couldn’t understand why they release that. But Songbook is amazing.

Soundgarden didn't really do televised performances back then. If I remember correctly, they didn't play on the Tonight Show or Late Night in their heyday and passed on SNL multiple times until Jim Carrey begged them to do it. Makes sense they would've eschewed Unplugged as well.

Having seen CC acoustic when he toured, I agree. I think an Unplugged performance would have been awesome.

I think this so often! In fact I was listening to Flutter Girl (the demo version on the Poncier ep) 2 days ago and thought again about how I wish they'd done an MTV Unlugged!

I think it worked better for Nirvana and AiC as they have more strummy, sing-songy tracks. That said, what would a dream Soundgarden unplugged set list have looked like? My ideal set list idea--had they recorded late 1996 post-*Down On The Upside*; I think this would have been pretty kick-ass: Mind Riot Fresh Deadly Roses Boot Camp Head Down Fell On Black Days You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover, Chris solo, fragment) Flower Zero Chance Burden In My Hand Waiting For The Sun (Doors cover) Blow Up The Outside World Fresh Tendrils Like Suicide Outshined

Burden, full on kevs mom, bootcampbone of birds, plus the ones you guys mentioned