By Jonathan Cunningham
Seattle Weekly

Photo: Laura Musselman

“I haven’t been this fucking excited about something in a long time,” says Tom Morello with a huge smile on his face. “It’s like I won some type of contest or something.” He’s saying this just as Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden are playing on stage together for the first time since 1997. The honey-throated (I’m kidding) Tad Doyle of Brothers of the Sonic Cloth is about to step back up to the microphone to sing “Spoonman” and Morello slides back to play rhythm guitar. It’s a rare moment for Seattle rock and everybody in the venue knows it. Just moments earlier, the floor of The Crocodile was nearly shaking from all of the screaming fans who were waiting all night for this type of surprise. But most people didn’t know what the surprise was.

From the moment I walked in the venue around 9:30, the place was wall to wall packed as the Nightwatchman, led by Morello ran through a blistering set of music. Morello’s got a cool as the other side of the pillow persona and he had the crowd revved up all night as the MC of sorts. After the Nightwatchman played, Morello immediately brought out legendary Americana singer Steve Earle who hit the stage with a guitar in hand and a harmonica around his neck to loud cheers.

Read More>