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TORONTO -- Chris Cornell has become rock music's marathon man.
The 44-year-old hugely respected rock wailer doesn't even have a new solo album to promote but he's currently in the middle of an extensive Canadian club tour which brought him to Kool Haus on Friday night for a sold-out show. (His last solo effort was 2007's Carry On and he already played twice in the city in the last year and half for that particular effort.)
It's true when this latest road trip was announced, Cornell was expected to be pushing Scream, his left-turn new collaboration with R&B-hip-hop producer Timbaland (Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Nelly Furtado), but the album's release date was pushed back - at his request - from Nov. 4 to Feb. 3.
So Cornell and his five piece band found themselves with a receptive if slightly puzzled audience on Friday night whenever he trotted out one of the album's new songs during his two-hour-and-20 minute set.
No matter, Cornell - who has fronted no fewer than two major rock bands in the form of Soundgarden and Audioslave (not to mention Temple Of The Dog briefly) before pursuing a less successful solo career - is nothing if not fearless.
Plus he has one of the best voices in rock on his side and seems to be able to sell almost anything in a live setting, including a cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean during a short solo acoustic set in the middle of an otherwise loud and raucous show that included a great cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song to kick off the four-song encore.
Starting a half-hour later than scheduled, Cornell opened the evening with the new Scream song Part Of Me, before launching into older solo songs No Such Thing and You Know My Name, the latter his James Bond theme from Casino Royale which finally kicked the concert into high gear.
But it was the first Audioslave tune, What You Are, that really ignited the audience, followed by such Soundgarden crowd-pleasers as Outshined and No Attention.
Then Mobile lead singer Mat Joly joined Cornell on stage to sing Temple Of The Dog's Hunger Strike before Cornell resumed with such solo material as Arms Around Your Love and Audioslave's Set It Off.
However, it was a particularly spirited version of Soundgarden's Rusty Cage that prompted a major audience singalong at Cornell's encouragement.
Unfortunately, the momentum was slightly lost when Cornell was left alone with just an acoustic guitar to handle Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun - I missed the classic song's dreamy, creeping electric guitar line - Jackson's Billie Jean, Audioslave's Like A Stone and Doesn't Remind Me, the latter which saw the welcome return of his band members.
The energy then ramped up again with Audioslave's Cochise, the club-influenced Scream songs Watch Out and the title track, Soundgarden's Blow Up The Outside World, which Cornell claimed he wrote in Toronto, or at least within 10 kilometres of the city - "I was a little fu--ed up," he explained - Audioslave's Be Yourself and Soundgarden's Spoonman.
Initially, decked out in a black long leather jacket and grey scarf before eventually stripping down to a purple long-sleeved shirt and jeans which showed off his long, lean frame, Cornell occasionally jumped up on one of two raised platforms are either side of the stage, which was decorated with eye-catching lighting screens.
But it was, as usual, his incredible four-octave voice that was the star from the beginning to the end even if the encore, which included Soundgarden's Sunshower and Just Like Suicide, ground down to a sluggish ending with an overlong, bluesy version of Temple Of The Dog's Reach Down.
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5