Dug out one of my old Soundgarden records this week. Not the obvious Superunknown. Not the purist Louder Than Love. Nah, I went for the big, bloated granddaddy of all grungedaddies Soundgarden album, Badmotorfinger - the masterwork that rates up there with Nevermind as one of the defining, sludgy, glorious moments of Seattle's brief musical reign. One thing about Soundgarden: Even their most obvious moments ("Outshined") escape damning kitschiness, despite the fact that their heavy, 100-proof sound is date-stamped "1990" in overpoweringly red ink. There are artists that transcend time and space and still sound sparkling decades later - the Stones, the Clash, AC/DC, even the Cult and Metallica to a degree - and then there are a lot of records that fairly scream out their genre and historical notch on the musical scale. Soundgarden's catalog belongs in the latter category. Most date-specific bands lose a good deal of their original vibrant color when a sample is placed against the musical fabric of the moment. Soundgarden doesn't. Yeah, the band sounds weighty, fat, dark purple and muddy as hell. It still sounds damn good.

SOUNDGARDEN, NINE INCH NAILS, 7 p.m., White River Amphitheatre, 40601 Auburn Enumclaw Road, Auburn, $39.50-$117, Ticketmaster