There are some bands that belong to a particular city so completely that separating the two feels almost impossible. Soundgarden is one of them. You can talk about Seattle’s musical history all day, but eventually you’re going to end up talking about Soundgarden, because when grunge exploded onto the mainstream in the early 1990s, they weren’t simply standing somewhere in the crowd watching it happen. They were one of the bands helping build the damn thing.
Now Soundgarden is heading back to the place where it all started for a pretty spectacular reason. The band has been announced as the halftime performer for the Seattle Seahawks’ NFL season opener against the New England Patriots at Lumen Field on September 9. And because apparently one legendary Seattle musician wasn’t enough, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready will join them, while Taylor Momsen will take over vocal duties.
For anyone who has followed Soundgarden over the years, that lineup carries some serious weight.
Chris Cornell’s absence will always be felt when Soundgarden takes the stage. There is simply no replacing a voice like his, and pretending otherwise would be ridiculous. Cornell was one of the defining vocalists of his generation, and his death in 2017 left a hole in the music world that never really closed. His voice could sound beautiful, terrifying, vulnerable and absolutely enormous, sometimes within the same song.
But Taylor Momsen has earned her place in this story.
Yes, the same Taylor Momsen who played Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas eventually grew up, picked up a microphone and decided she was going to spend her adult life kicking the doors off rock clubs. Somewhere between the adorable little girl from Whoville and the frontwoman of The Pretty Reckless, Momsen became a serious rock vocalist in her own right.
Her history with Soundgarden goes back several years. She performed with the band during the 2019 I Am the Highway tribute concert for Cornell, taking on “Rusty Cage,” “Drawing Flies” and “Loud Love.” She also joined Soundgarden for the Taylor Hawkins tribute performances in 2022, and she stepped into the vocal position when the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
So while nobody is suggesting that Momsen is replacing Chris Cornell, she has become a remarkably natural choice when Soundgarden needs a vocalist capable of handling the material with the power it demands.
Momsen herself has made her position pretty clear: if Soundgarden calls, she’s showing up.
And honestly, that’s exactly how rock and roll is supposed to work.
Seattle, Soundgarden and the Perfect Stage
The location makes this performance even more significant.
Soundgarden isn’t just another band returning for another nostalgia-driven reunion show. This is a band performing in Seattle, during the opening night of the city’s NFL season, at a stadium packed with people who may have grown up with their music.
Seattle and grunge are permanently connected, whether the music industry likes it or not. Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Alice in Chains helped create a musical identity that eventually traveled far beyond Washington State. Suddenly flannel shirts, distorted guitars and musicians who looked like they would rather be left alone became a worldwide cultural phenomenon.
Soundgarden had already been around for years before that explosion. The band formed in 1984 and released their debut album, Ultramega OK, in 1988. Their breakthrough eventually arrived with albums such as Badmotorfinger and Superunknown, the latter becoming one of the defining records of the grunge era.
Superunknown debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and eventually earned the band multiple Grammy Awards. “Black Hole Sun” became one of the most recognizable songs of the 1990s, while “Spoonman” earned Soundgarden another Grammy for Best Metal Performance.
That is an important distinction. Soundgarden wasn’t simply successful because they happened to be standing in the right place when grunge became fashionable. They had already spent years developing a sound that was heavier, stranger and more adventurous than most mainstream rock.
Then the mainstream finally caught up.
The Taylor Momsen Era of Soundgarden
There is something fitting about Momsen standing at the microphone for this particular performance.
Her own band, The Pretty Reckless, has spent years carrying pieces of the Soundgarden-era rock tradition into a new generation. Momsen has the vocal range and aggression required for Cornell’s material, but she also brings her own personality to the performances.
That matters because Soundgarden’s music isn’t karaoke.
Nobody wants to hear somebody simply imitate Chris Cornell. The goal should be to respect the songs while allowing the person performing them to bring something of themselves to the stage. Momsen has already demonstrated that she understands that distinction.
And with Mike McCready joining the band, the Seattle connection gets even deeper.
McCready is one of the architects of Pearl Jam’s sound and another musician who helped define the Seattle rock movement. Seeing him share the stage with Soundgarden is almost like watching pieces of Seattle’s musical history reconnect in real time.
There is also something beautifully circular about it. Soundgarden helped establish the Seattle sound. Pearl Jam carried it into the biggest arenas in the world. Now members of both bands are coming together for a performance in the city that gave birth to so much of modern rock.
Somewhere, a guy in a flannel shirt is probably very happy about this.
There May Be New Soundgarden Music Coming Too
The halftime performance isn’t the only reason Soundgarden fans have been paying attention.
The band has also been working toward completing an album containing previously unreleased material featuring Chris Cornell’s vocals. The recordings date back to sessions the band worked on with Cornell before his death, but legal complications and the enormous emotional weight surrounding the project have made completing it a lengthy process.
Drummer Matt Cameron has indicated that the band is getting closer to finishing the recordings, while guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Ben Shepherd have continued working on the material.
That project carries an entirely different emotional weight from a reunion performance.
Hearing a previously unreleased Soundgarden song featuring Cornell’s completed vocals will inevitably be complicated for fans. There is excitement because new Soundgarden music is something most of us never expected to hear again. There is also the unavoidable sadness of knowing those vocals belong to an artist who is no longer here to perform them.
That’s the strange power of music. A recording can freeze a moment in time long after the person who created it is gone.
Soundgarden Deserves This Moment
Chris Cornell’s death changed Soundgarden forever, but it didn’t erase what the band created.
If anything, the years since his passing have made the band’s catalog feel even more important. Songs such as “Black Hole Sun,” “Fell on Black Days,” “Spoonman,” “Rusty Cage,” “Outshined” and “The Day I Tried to Live” continue to find new audiences because they weren’t written simply to sound good on the radio. They had atmosphere, tension and emotional weight.
That’s why Soundgarden still matters.
And that’s why seeing them return to Seattle for a Seahawks season opener feels bigger than a halftime show. It is a celebration of a band, a city, a musical movement and a vocalist whose influence continues to stretch across generations.
We’ll just have to hope the NFL understands what it has sitting in its own backyard and actually gives fans a chance to experience the performance properly.
Because if there’s one thing the NFL has taught us over the years, it’s that football can somehow turn a three-hour sporting event into an entire-day commitment. Adding Soundgarden to the equation seems like a pretty reasonable way to make the whole thing even harder to walk away from.
For those of us who grew up listening to Soundgarden, this one should hit differently.
And for anyone who has never really given them a proper listen, take the hint. Start with Superunknown, turn the volume up and give it your full attention. You may discover that the band everyone told you was “grunge” was actually doing something much more interesting.
Static Live Music Calendar App
If you’re looking for live music closer to home, the Static Live Music Calendar App tracks concerts and events throughout Florida’s East Coast, including Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Flagler Beach and surrounding communities. We’re also working toward expanding into additional cities, because apparently keeping track of one region’s musicians wasn’t enough work.
Find the Static Live Music Calendar App on the Apple App Store and Google Play, and keep up with the bands coming through your part of Florida.
