See Soundgarden Members Reunite for First Time Since Chris Cornell’s Death

Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil and drummer Matt Cameron played together for the first time since the death of Chris Cornell last month at a gig in Denmark. They played together as part of a supergroup called MC50, which pays tribute to the Detroit-based rock group MC5, best known for their leftist politics and the incendiary song “Kick Out the Jams.” At the show, they played “Come Together,” a song off the Kick Out the Jams album.

In addition to the Soundgarden members, MC50 features original MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer – who penned the upcoming autobiography The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5 and My Life of Impossibilities, due out August 14th – alongside Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, King’s X’s Dug Pinnick and Zen Guerrilla’s Marcus Durant. They recently joined up with Pearl Jam (a band that also features Matt Cameron on drums) at Belgium’s Rock Werchter festival, where they played “Kick Out the Jams” and Kramer shared vocals with Eddie Vedder.

“Hearing ‘Kick Out The Jams’ for the first time rewrote what you thought you knew of the Sixties and a band’s potential,” Canty said in a statement.

The collective will be embarking on a North American tour in the fall, beginning in Fort Lauderdale on September 5th and wrapping in Detroit (naturally) on October 27th. They’ll then head to the Europe for a second run of dates there.

Kramer was present for a previous Soundgarden quasi-reunion in 2009. Thayil, Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd played together for the first time since Soundgarden had split in 1997 at a gig for Tom Morello’s Nightwatchman; Kramer was one of the opening acts. The singer for the show was Tad Doyle and they billed themselves as Tadgarden.