Recap of Monday's neighboring concerts by Chris Cornell, Wolf Alice

Two noteworthy rock shows happened two blocks apart Monday night in Minneapolis, and one music critic did his best to assess them both. The timing worked out to catch the first 80 minutes of Chris Cornell's solo acoustic gig and then only miss the first two songs of Wolf Alice's hourlong set.

CHRIS CORNELL AT THE STATE THEATRE

He started out talking about the weather – "I know you've got about four minutes of warm weather left," he said – and would go on to discuss James Bond movies, record companies and his old lyric about "feeling Minnesota." So the 51-year-old Seattle howler didn't just peel off the thundering layers of his beloved band Soundgarden in Monday's sold-out solo-acoustic performance, he also stripped away the rock-starry façade that often accompanies his gigs.

This was a folky, coffeehouse-ready singer/songwriter gig to the T, from his informal banter to his (wise) decision to throw in several covers, ranging from the so-obvious but so-perfect spin on Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" to the surprise pick of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are-a-Changing," which included new lyrics and even a little harmonica blowing. Cornell didn't choose the latter tune just for Bob's native state – he's playing it every night on his tour – but he did throw in a discussion of Soundgarden's "Outshined" lyrics to set it up ("I'm looking California, but feeling Minnesota"). The story was he wrote it one day while wearing shorts in Los Angeles -- "and I'm so skinny, I look ridiculous in shorts."

"I thought it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever written, but I left it in," he admitted. "And then it wound up being a movie title and everything."

Minnesota was definitely feeling Cornell. Early in the show, one guy in the balcony let out a loud "[F---] yeah!" midway through his 2009 solo tune "As Hope & Promise Fade" after the singer launched into his first series of loud, bellowing high notes, and both Cornell and the rest of responded favorably to what was clearly "a moment." There were plenty more of those during the first half of the set, also including the surprisingly tender "Let Your Eyes Wander" – one of several enhanced by cello from his lone onstage accomplice Brian Gibson – as well as the Bond movie theme "You Know My Name." In the first half of the set, he only dropped in as many oldies as is seemingly required, but each also went over huge, including a cello-laden "Fell on Black Days" and looping-rigged "Blow Up the Outside World," as well as an entirely solo rendition of Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike."

WOLF ALICE AT FIRST AVENUE

I fully expected to come under frontwoman Ellie Roswell's charms Monday night, what with her broad- ranging voice and ability to bounce from pretty to ugly at the drop of a fuzz pedal. The bigger, better surprise at her London-reared quartet's second Twin Cities performance was just how tight and united the entire band is. It's not just Roswell's show.

Playing to about a three-quarters-full room, she and the rest of the band pulled off impressive musical change-ups and crescendoing moments throughout their hourlong set. They quickly bounced from the gorgeously burning single "Bros" to the sneering punk blast of "You're a Germ" without any hitch, and then slowed things down without losing the crowd for the mellow mood-soaker "Soapy Water." Best of all, their explosive guitar bursts and most manic parts hit like a Mack truck (or maybe a Mercedes truck, being British), particularly in "Lisbon" and the pre-encore finale "Giant Peach."

Her bandmates look like a mish-mash of personalities as much as they sound like one: Bassist Theo Ellis looks and acts like he's in some high-energy pop/punk band, drummer and co-vocalist Joel Amey has sort of a '70s Southern Californian look, and guitarist Jeff Oddie has more of an aloof concentration befitting a shoegazer band.

The encore itself hit home that the quartet is still relatively a baby band and doesn't yet have enough strong material to fill out a headlining set, but they ended strong with "Moaning Lisa Smile." A couple more albums and tours and this could be one of rock's most exciting live bands.