Louder Than Love || Chris Cornell

A Birth Ritual, A Birth Of Idiots

Capitol Theatre Olympia Washington, August 6, 1991

"....Thank You!" Chris yells into the mic after finishing the epic, 'Jesus Christ Pose'. The energy from the audience was insane. It was so amazing to see just how much of a stir they are now creating.

"... You might not recognize anything that we're playing 'cause this is off our new record, we never played before really..." Chris says into the mic and the crowd cheers.

"So if we fuck anything up we're gonna stop and then start over and keep doing it until we get it right, I hope you don't mind?" He says and more screams come from the audience.

"WE LOVE YOU!!!!" I hear someone in the front row scream. There were a bunch of girls that had made their way to the front which surprised me as the pit was full of guys and there were so many crowd surfing. At one point even Chris did a bit of crowd surfing during 'Birth Ritual' and all of the roadies ran out to help him and to make sure he didn't loose his pants. Yes that has happened and it was hilarious.

"Good... Alright... this is Ben Shepherd over here on bass... This is Face Pollution,"

And with that, they rip into 'Face Pollution' followed immediately by 'Gun' and as soon as they started the first few chords of 'Gun' The crowd went completely insane, screaming their faces off. The group of girls that were in the front row, practically right up next to the stage, were just loosing their minds watching Chris. I thought it was hilarious. Of course I loose my mind over him all the time.

A bit further into the song, the girls were just completely mesmerized by him and suddenly one chick, the one who screamed ' I love you' a little earlier rips her shirt completely off and she was not wearing a bra at all.

Now I haven't really had to deal with any sort of groupie activity since being with Chris. Yes, chicks do throw themselves at him sometimes but there are also girls who are genuinely fans and the majority of the time, they are respectful and don't act that way. These chicks in the front row were not what I was expecting at all. I'm not jealous by any means whatsoever. I mean, Chris married me, what do I have to be jealous of?

"Andi... you ok!?" One of the roadies, Dave,  asks me.
"Me? yea I'm cool," I say back leaning into him so he could hear me.
"Ok, just thought I'd check..." He smiles at me and I smile back and take a sip of my beer. I turn back and watch Chris and I can see that he's just lost in the music, playing his soul out to the audience and not even noticing the chicks waving their boobs around. Well even if he did notice, I wouldn't care, he's a guy... but still.

I finish my beer and decide to head down to the bar to grab another one. I climb down the steps to the stage, head around to the side and make my way to the bar. I was definitely feeling the drinks but I was feeling really good. I had a really good buzz going and I didn't want it to end.

I finally make my way to the bar, as Soundgarden rips into 'New Damage' and order a Jack and Coke instead. The bartender set the drink down in front of me and I take a sip, relishing the sweet burn. Damn I love that Tennessee Whiskey.

As I sip my Jack and Coke, I turn and see the chicks that were up at the front of the stage, that now had their shirts back on, or what looked like a shirt... sort of, walk up next to me to order some more drinks.

"Fuck... do you think he noticed me?" The one girl says as she adjusts herself. She was tall with long straight black hair and looked like she belonged in a GNR video.
"Well with those new boobs Daisy, he better have," The other chick laughs and she even looked like she should be from the same video.
"Fuck... Chris Cornell is just so fucking hot... I just hope he saw me," She says as she steps beside me.