Chris Cornell and Duff McKagan Join Mad Season for Reunion Show

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Dec 15, 2014

The surviving members of grunge-era supergroup Mad Season have announced they'll be performing a one-off reunion gig in 2015 that will add a pair of Seattle-born superstars to the lineup. Joining guitarist Mike McCready and drummer Barrett Martin will be Soundgarden's Chris Cornell on vocals and former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan.

The show takes place January 30 as part of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra's "Sonic Evolution" series, an event that crosses classical music with other genres.

The concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall will find the SSO performing a newly commissioned piece from McCready, as well as pieces from Mad Season and his full-time project Pearl Jam. It's explained that SSO music director Ludovic Morlot will be leading Mad Season and the Seattle Symphony in a debut performance of orchestral and solo arrangements of original Mad Season works.

While McCready and Barrett had reunited onstage at Seattle's Showbox theatre in 2012 to play their "River of Deceit," along with Jeff Rouse (Loaded) and bassist Rick Friel, this will be the first time they've performed material billed under the name Mad Season since 1995.

Mad Season only issued one LP in their original run, 1995's Above. The album was treated to a bonus track-heavy deluxe reissue in 2013. Mark Lanegan, who had played with Barrett in Screaming Trees, had been recruited to put vocals on some unreleased recordings included on the set.

Original bassist John Baker Saunders passed away in 1999, with vocalist Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) having died in 2002.

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