Temple Of The Dog has announced their first-ever tour in November 2016. The band will play five gigs in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

In 1990, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam joined forces in the supergroup Temple Of The Dog. The group featured vocalist Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Jeff Ament on bass guitar, Mike McCready on lead guitar, and Matt Cameron on drums. Eddie Vedder provided some lead and backing vocal.

The band released their self-titled LP in April 1991 through A&M Records. Image Credit: Team Rock
The band released their self-titled LP in April 1991 through A&M Records. Image Credit: Team Rock

Temple of the Dog came together following the death of Mother Love Bone’s singer Andrew Wood, who at one point was Cornell’s roommate. The recording sessions took place at London Bridge Studios, in Seattle, Washington in November and December 1990 and initially sold 70,000 copies in the United States.

“Temple Of The Dog was about making an album simply for the joy of doing it […] We weren’t concerned what anyone outside of our group of friends would think of it. It was the first and maybe only stress-free album that we all made,” Cornell stated.

The only time the band played a full one-hour set was while writing and rehearsing the material for the album. Then, they performed in Seattle at the Off Ramp Café on November 13, 1990.

Temple of the Dog’s backstory

On December 20, 1999, the band opened for Alice in Chains, at the Moore Theater in Seattle. Then, at a Pearl Jam show at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, California on October 28, 2003, the band reunited once again, after Cornell joined the band on stage. Cornell joined Pearl Jam on October 6, 2009, in Los Angeles, and then again during Labor Day weekend, 2011 at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin for Pearl Jam’s twentieth-anniversary celebration and in 2014 at Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit show.

Now, Temple Of The Dog has announced they will reunite one last time for a five-date tour to mark the 25th anniversary of their only album. They are planning to play in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. The Seattle show will have a two-ticket limit per person. The Paramount’s ticket website currently lists prices at $94.25; tickets don’t go on sale until July 29.

“We wanted to do the one thing we never got to do… play shows and see what it feels like to be the band that we walked away from 25 years ago […] this is something no one has ever seen. We wanted to stop and recognize that we did this and pay homage,” Cornell said.

Fans signed up to the Ten Club, Soundgarden and Chris Cornell email lists will get an exclusive ticket sale until Wednesday, July 27th. General on-sale tickets will be available at noon local time on Friday, the 29th. According to the band, for each ticket sold, $1.50 will benefit the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation and $1.50 will benefit Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation. In addition to the tour, on September 30th, the band self-titled LP will be released as a 25th-anniversary edition, mixed by Pearl Jam and Soundgarden collaborator Brendan O’Brien. The set will be available in four versions.

The CD will cost $12.99; the 2 CD Deluxe Edition will be $18.99, featuring five studio outtakes. The 2 LP + Download Code Edition will cost $27.99. Finally, the Super Deluxe Edition will cost $99.99, with free shipping for US customers; and will consist of 2 CDs, 1 DVD, and 1 Blu-ray audio.

The edition will include two songs that did not make it on the original album, “Angel of Fire” and “Black Cat”, for a total of 51 tracks. It will also have the official “Hunger Strike” music video; and almost all of the bands performances in high quality.

Temple of the Dog 25th Anniversary Tour Dates

November 4 – Philadelphia, PA – Tower Theater

November 7 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

November 11 – San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic Center

November 14 – Los Angeles, CA – The Forum

November 20 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater

On January 19, 2016, Cornell announced that Soundgarden has returned to the studio to continue working on their seventh album.

Source: Rolling Stones