Corneroffandom Chronicles: A Year Ago Today
(Taken from Twitter, someone else who was at the Peoria concert and saw him.)
When I was little, like most children, the music I listened to was dictated by my parents' likes. 80s, 90s, oldies, lite rock, yada yada. Then I turned thirteen and began branching out. Listening to *horrified gasp* rock, metal, such things. I was lucky enough that this was the time period when Chris Cornell had just released Euphoria Morning, so Can't Change Me and Flutter Girl were still getting radio play. Not to mention, Temple of a Dog and Soundgarden were still played regularly as well. So in a way I grew up with Chris Cornell as one of my main influences, the storytelling in his music always intriguing me. Not many can tell a story so smoothly in a three or four minute song, but he did so well at it that I can listen to his music over and over again and still find new things lurking in the lyrics or the music to this day.
I remember waking up on March 7th, 2016, to the news that Chris Cornell was coming to the Peoria Civic Center in July. Nice belated birthday gift, huh? I delayed buying tickets because I was debating with myself where I wanted to sit-- security seemed to be heightened for the concert, if you bought rows A through Q, you had to get your tickets at the venue the night of the event. If you ordered seats further back, you could receive them in the mail or print them off normally. I considered getting row S so I could have my ticket in hand sooner but eventually I decided to go for it and ordered seats in row K, which left me a little nervous because I'd never used the will call option before, and I'm always a little worried something will go wrong. The day before the concert, I just happened to google his name and this came up:
Chris Cornell's alleged stalker, Jessica Robbins, was arrested outside his concert in Louisville, Kentucky Wednesday, TMZ reports.
Jessica Robbins posted $50,000 bail, but must wear an ankle bracelet and stay away from band's Tampa concert
Robbins was picked up by authorities after trying to enter the concert at the Louisville Palace. According to TMZ, all venues on Cornell's tour have been given photos of Robbins should she show up to one of the gigs. Authorities in Kentucky have reportedly turned over Robbins' case to the FBI.
The FBI in Louisville, Kentucky confirmed to Rolling Stone that the Louisville police handed Robbins over to the FBI after her arrest. Robbins was taken into custody as a fugitive on an outstanding warrant stemming from charges leveled against her in 2014. Her case will now be handed back over to the FBI in New York; new charges, if there are any, have yet to be filed against Robbins.
In 2014, the FBI arrested Robbins for allegedly harassing Cornell online and charged her with stalking. At the time, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Cornell and his wife believed that Robbins had entered their Miami home in 2013. The Cornells also pulled their kids out of New York public schools out of fear that Robbins would hurt them.
After her arrest, Robbins posted the $50,000 bail, but the judge ordered her to stay offline and wear an ankle bracelet so she could be monitored. However, Robbins skipped her next court date, managed to remove her ankle bracelet and had been missing until her arrest Wednesday.
Cornell remains on the road in support of his 2015 solo album, Higher Truth. The trek extends through the rest of the month, wrapping July 27th in Winnipeg.
Craziness. Suddenly the heightened security made sense. So, since this was the first concert I was going to since Peoria Civic Center had also revised their security measures (metal detectors and the like) I decided to leave early but I was still uncertain about where exactly to go (the place has like a dozen doors leading in different places and when I tried to go in the right door for wrestling a few months earlier, security had to guide me to the right place anyway, and were confused about how I got in by that entrance, haha. Oops) so I found a security worker and asked her, and she agreed to walk me to the entrance. Nice lady, ended up taking me where I would've originally gone anyway. Oops. We did talk for a bit about Chris and his stalker though, and she told me he was planning on staying in his tour bus until the show started, and then leave back into it as soon as it ended, which neither of us blamed him for.
Will call went very easy, I had no reason to worry about it, of course, and the metal detectors went smoothly too, so of course, everything was fine and my fretting was for nothing, haha. Doors opened at 6, but the show didn't start until 8, so there was a lot of time to wander the theater's open area, which I've never been in that often. Got a soda, and sat for awhile, watching people buy Chris Cornell merchandise and talk until we were allowed inside. I had my hands full because they gave out soda in these little glasses here so I had two of them to hold me through the concert... and I ended up dropping my ticket. Thankfully the people behind me were very nice and rescued it for me. Looking back, I'm even more thankful for this now than I was then.
Most of the concerts I go to are held in the arena. It's simple stadium seating along the walls, and then the floor is typically general admission with no seats. So whenever i get to go to the theater, it's special for me. I've been there three times, once for Goo Goo Dolls in 2010, once for 3 Doors Down in 2013, and then this, Chris Cornell in 2016. It's a very pretty venue.
His opening act was Fantastic Negrito. I've never heard of him before, but he was really good. Interesting range, deep lyrics, stuff like that. I can only imagine how he's feeling today, or well, since May 18th. You guys should look into his music. So he played for about 30 to 45 minutes, then went to sign autographs out in the main area. I considered going to get his autograph but by then, I was getting excited for Chris so I stayed in my seat and watched them change the stage around for Chris, putting out his guitars and stuff like that.
The lights dimmed and he took the stage around 9 PM, and he played straight through to about 11:20, stopping between songs to talk to us, explain to us his motivations for some of the songs, or just to tell stories, take requests, and explain why some he couldn't play in an acoustic setting. There's no real describing it. He played so many of the songs I matured on, and others I had never heard. Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, Audioslave. His solo stuff. He covered Prince, Led Zepplin... even U2 and Metallica. Haha.
Click to viewSuch a creative talent, being there that night and experiencing it first hand justified all of the years I'd spent listening to his music and growing creatively through it myself. Leaving the venue and returning to reality was a bit disappointing, but no amount of time would've been enough, really. I wish I had pictures of the event itself but cameras weren't allowed, as is the case with most concerts, and I'm awful at sneaking stuff in so it is what it is.
Some people have uploaded a couple of short videos from that night on Youtube, which is a nice, if sombering recollection of that evening.
If you had told me I would be staring at the news of his passing ten months later, I wouldn't have believed you. But here we are, with these scattered memories of that night, and a void in rock music that personally will never be filled. I say it a lot for wrestling, which is a rapidly changing industry itself between releases, injuries, and retirements, you never know when or if you'll have another opportunity to see your favorite performers, so you should definitely go to as many shows as you can. It never held so true as it did in this case.
Miss you, Chris.
