Temple of the Dog—a supergroup that featured members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden (including Chris Cornell)—enjoyed a successful 25th anniversary tour late last year.
Although the bulk of the just-reunited band's set lists was pulled from their self-titled 1991 album, they also paid tribute to a few of their heroes, including Led Zeppelin, the Cure, David Bowie, Black Sabbath and Free. They even played a song by Mad Season, a short-lived Nineties alt-rock/grunge band featuring TOTD/Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready (and, of course, the late Layne Staley).
Below, you can check out performances of Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand," Sabbath's "War Pigs," Bowie's "Quicksand," Mad Season's "River of Deceit" and Free's "I'm a Mover" from a Philadelphia show last November. You also can enjoy the band's performance of their own Cornell-penned January 1991 single, "Hunger Strike."
"When the album Temple of the Dog came out, it was about a little more than a year before it started getting a lot of airplay," Cornell told the Philly crowd, adding that MTV initially ignored their "Hunger Strike" music video. "But then a band called Pearl Jam and a band called Soundgarden started getting a lot of fucking airplay."
Cornell went on to tell the crowd about an MTV intern who realized that Temple of the Dog featured members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden; the intern tipped off his network that they should be playing "Hunger Strike."
"They started playing the video and then a lot of people heard the album, which was good," Cornell said. "It was good for us and it was good for Andrew [Wood] because I felt it got his story out there and people could seek out his music."
Besides Cornell and McCready, Temple of the Dog included Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron and Stone Gossard.
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
