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TORONTO - Audioslave seemed to have multiple personalities Tuesday night at the tightly packed, sweaty, sold-out Kool Haus. Yet the hits of three bands made for one strong 95-minute set.
The group, consisting of members from the defunct Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine, are touring behind their forthcoming sophomore album, Out Of Exile. And after mining their own rather thin catalogue, they raided the vaults for the older jewels.
Opening with Set It Off from Audioslave's 2002 self-titled debut, lead singer Chris Cornell walked onstage with his fist raised before being drowned out by guitarist Tom Morello.
Morello, along with drummer Brad Wilk and bassist Tim Commerford, were the driving force of the show with Cornell doing his best to measure up. But Cornell, in his black tank top, also had some backup singers -- the audience gave large and loud harmony vocal during Exploder, and for basically every other song the crowd knew.
Audioslave often would bookend new songs such as Out Of Exile, which Cornell dedicated to his wife, and the boogie rocker Your Time Has Come around Like A Stone and the Soundgarden staple Spoonman. But with the album still a month from release, fans didn't match the energy the group displayed on these tracks. The lone exception was the lead single Be Yourself offered halfway through the show.
By far, though, the highlight of the evening was simply watching Tom Morello play. Wearing a ball cap, tie, shirt, vest and jeans, Morello didn't take long to hit his masterful stride on Gasoline, jumping around the stage when not shifting his guitar forward to create a different sound effect.
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He also made his axe sound like a DJ scratching vinyl during a snippet of Bulls On Parade before playing like a man possessed during Sleep Now In The Fire. Morello, with the words "Soul Power" written on one of his guitars, is definitely the soul of the group.
The middle portion reached rock bottom with the new song, Doesn't Remind Me, which is better suited for a Southern country rock band.
In fact, the greatest responses were for primarily the non-Audioslave songs. Cornell returned alone for the encores' start by doing an acoustic campfire version of Black Hole Sun from Soundgarden's Superunknown album. And again he was drowned out by the crowd's voice.
The audience, generally in their twenties and thirties, spent most of the show pumping fists or perfecting synchronized head-bobbing. Nothing got them going more than the angst-filled Killing In The Name, the 1992 hit from the self-titled Rage Against The Machine album. Although not generating near the angst of Rage singer Zack de la Rocha, Cornell encouraged the crowd to give the middle-digit salute while Morello and company delivered as promised.
After a fan partially sang a horrid version of O Canada on stage, Audioslave ended with Cochise and with all quite satisfied.