It wasn’t exactly an Axl Rose moment, but there was a distinct air of the superstar slumming it as Chris Cornell blithely ignored both the start time and the curfew at the Astoria. As the erstwhile frontman of Soundgarden, one of the originators of grunge from Seattle, and more recently of the American supergroup Audioslave, Cornell is an experienced heavy hitter with millions of album sales to his credit. But at the age of 42 he remains somewhat untested as a solo act.

With his second album, Carry On, due in the shops this month, he was keen to showcase his new songs, but under no illusions as to what this audience had come to hear. In a set that lasted well over two hours, he dipped generously into the repertoires of his former groups, beginning with the Soundgarden favourites Spoonman and Outshined. In the hands of Cornell’s generic four-man backing band, these riff-heavy numbers now sounded like staples from an even earlier era, when groups such as Free and Led Zeppelin were earning their stripes.

The comparison was underlined by Cornell’s voice, an instrument of unyielding power and frightening range. Joined on stage by David Arnold on keyboards, Cornell stormed into You Know My Name, the theme that he and Arnold composed for Casino Royale. With Cornell’s voice rising to ever more unlikely heights, the song spiralled towards an ear-threatening climax. And this was only the fifth number.

While Cornell’s ability as a singer were never in doubt, he lacked the expansive personality needed to carry the whole show on his shoulders. He clumped stiffly around the stage, banged his microphone stand on the floor from time to time, but looked more comfortable once he had strapped on an acoustic guitar and had something to do with his hands. A quieter acoustic section, midway through, provided a welcome contrast.

Black Hole Sun was dispatched with suitable gravitas and Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean was given a Vanilla Fudge-style Mogadon-rock workover. But it was the heavy-metal thunder of songs such as Slaves and Bulldozers and a frenetic Jesus Christ Pose that defined a muscular performance – and continued to ring in the ears long after it was over.

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