Surviving Soundgarden Members Announce Benefit Show In Seattle
Next week, the three surviving members of Soundgarden will get back together to play a benefit show at their Seattle hometown. It won’t be the first time that Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron have performed together since the 2017 death of bandleader Chris Cornell, but it will still be a rare occurrence.
The show in question is the annual annual SMooCH concert, which raises money for Seattle Children’s Hospital’s uncompensated care fund. The same benefit will feature Sebadoh’s first show in five years, as well as Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch, and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan. It goes down 12/14 at Seattle’s Showbox, and it’s already sold out.
The surviving Soundgarden guys aren’t billed as Soundgarden. Instead, they’re listed as Nudedragons, an anagram for their band name. In 2010, Soundgarden reunited to play their first shows since their 1997 breakup. Their first show back was at the Showbox, and they used the Nudedragons name.
For this show, the Seattle singer Shaina Shepherd — no relation to Ben — will perform with them. The SMooCH website says, “Nudedragons will be returning to the stage, and the Showbox, for the first time in 14+ years as part of the SMooCH 2024 lineup!!! Shaina Shepherd will be featured on vocals for their brief encore performance.”
As Consequence Of Sound notes, the surviving Soundgarden members previously played together at a Chris Cornell tribute show in 2018, and they also backed up Brandi Carlile when she covered “Black Hole Sun” and “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” at the Gorge Amphitheatre in 2021. Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron, along with Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, also play together in the supergroup 3rd Secret.
