SEATTLE — Soundgarden’s surviving members are reconvening on a familiar Seattle stage for a good cause.
The Seattle rock heroes are returning to the Showbox this month to play the 13th annual SMooCH concert benefiting Seattle Children’s Hospital’s uncompensated care fund. Performing under the anagram alias Nudedragons, as they did during a fabled 2010 reunion on the same hallowed stage, Soundgarden members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd top an already stacked lineup that also features Sub Pop alums Sebadoh, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill and Seattle’s own Duff McKagan.
The SMooCH website describes the Nudedragons appearance as a “brief encore performance.”
The Nordstrom-backed benefit gig on Dec. 14 is sold out.
The show marks the second time all three of Soundgarden’s members have reunited in their home state since frontman Chris Cornell died in 2017. Three years ago, the guys joined Brandi Carlile at the Gorge Amphitheatre to play “Black Hole Sun” and “Searching With My Good Eye Closed,” with Carlile handling Cornell’s vocals. The band previously reunited for a star-studded 2019 memorial concert in Los Angeles.
This time around, the Soundgarden (er, Nudedragons) members will be joined by another Seattle favorite and bona fide vocal powerhouse, Shaina Shepherd. The versatile singer-songwriter with a big voice is a natural pick and someone with the chops and range to fill in for the inimitable Cornell. Thayil and Shaina Shepherd connected back in 2020 for MoPOP’s virtual tribute concert to fellow hometown heroes Alice in Chains. Shepherd, who fronted the grunge-indebted rock group BEARAXE before focusing on her solo work in recent years, wowed an online audience with their rendition of Alice’s “It Ain’t Like That.”
