Stone Temple Pilots

Stone Temple Pilots Livestream 10/16/20

Stone Temple Pilots released their second album Purple on June 7, 1994. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Music Charts and I purchased one of the copies that helped put it there. I was on board with STP after just one listen to “Sex Type Thing” so it was a no-brainer to pick up Purple on the day it came out. More than 25 years later I was excited to revisit an album still fairly heavy in my personal rotation by witnessing a livestream of the album performed by the band. Scott Weiland would be missing of course, but having seen Jeff Gutt front the band through its set at Aftershock 2019 I was confident he could help keep the spirit of the songs alive. Below are some expansions of notes I jotted down as I was watching the livestream:

“Meatplow” – still rockin’ with that killer riff.

“Vaseline” – made me think of Scott’s sad performance that went viral near the end of his life where something was clearly wrong. At this point I also started questioning how “live” this livestream was. There was no talking to address the audience up to this point and it seemed a little too produced.

“Lounge Fly” – my suspicions about this being live were further escalated before the band played this song after a still image of the original recording log came onto the screen and Dean told a story of how the song was written on the record label’s private jet on a particularly turbulent ride getting from the Grammy’s in L.A. down to San Diego for a show. He said the slide extremes in the guitar were meant to represent the plane going down. “New guy” singer Jeff Gutt sounded slightly Scott on this song.

“Interstate Love Song” – the still image of the recording log combined with narration continued between practically every song after that, this time with a story about how Interstate Love Song came about. It was during this song I realized that both Jeff and Robert were wearing their sunglasses inside throughout the whole performance. Rock ‘N’ Roll.

“Still Remains” – made my nipples hard. This is not just one of my favorite songs on the album but one of my favorite songs ever. Melodically the song is just gorgeous.

“Pretty Penny” – perfectly exemplified what made STP so special.

“Silvergun Superman” – also one of my favorites on this album and they nailed it.

“Big Empty” – definitely suits Jeff’s voice well as his timbre most similarly sounded like Scott during this song.

“Unglued” – during the pre-song narration it was revealed that this song was built off a riff that Scott brought to the band, which made me smile and miss Scott even more. Banger.

“Army Ants” – The intro riff sounded a little weird because everything up to that point had been played pretty much note for note with the album but then the song hit and all was well.

“Kitchenware & Candybars” – very tender song that shows both extremes of this album.

After “Kitchenware & Candybars” the stream very abruptly switched back to the image of the album cover that was there before the stream started and that was that. No nod to the hilarious “hidden track.” All in all it was exactly what I was hoping for. They drew me into their world despite being on a computer screen. Just the thought of it being live changed the experience for me and although it pales in comparison to seeing the band at the Gorge less than two months after the album was released it was still pretty cool.

Aftershock 10/12/19

Larry departed first thing this morning and the rest of us woke up still a little buzzed from the day before. I wanted to get something in me before the hangover set in and sometimes beer does not always go down easy in this situation so when Ken said he was going to the store I requested a bottle of Jager or Fireball but because Ken is Ken we ended up with a bottle of both.

H09909 was the first band on the bill for the day that I wanted to check out based on me seeing the end of their set a few years back when they opened for Ministry. They were alright but for some reason we just were not feeling it.

Stone Temple Pilots was up next. The last time I saw Stone Temple Pilots was at this very festival four years ago with Chester Bennington singing. Fast forward to 2019 and now sadly both Chester and Scott Weiland are dead but the other guys in the band wanted to move on so I was naturally curious to see how well STP Version 3.0 would sound with the new singer Jeff Gutt. It turns out not so bad. Gutt’s voice is more suited to these songs than Chester’s ever was and he never seemed to try to imitate the massive personality that Scott was.

SETLIST: Down, Wicked Garden, Vasoline, Big Bang Baby, Big Empty, Plush, Interstate Love Song, Roll Me Under, Dead & Bloated, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Sex Type Thing

Had it really been three years since I last saw Marilyn Manson? Yes and ironically enough it was when they opened for Slipknot. Since that last time they released the album Heaven Upside Down and dismissed Twiggy from the band due to rape allegations but even that was two years ago. This time Marilyn Manson himself seemed like he may have been a little drunk but that certainly did not stop him from tearing up the stage with a good mix of super aggressive songs like “Irresponsible Hate Anthem” and “Antichrist Superstar” with more accessible staples like “The Dope Show” and “The Beautiful People.”

SETLIST: Irresponsible Hate Anthem, This Is The New Shit, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Say10 (preceded by “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”), Antichrist Superstar, The Beautiful People

It was funny that Rob Zombie was billed as the headliner for the night right after Marilyn Manson since Zombie now has John5 playing guitar and Ginger Fish playing drums. I have seen Zombie several times and noticed that having these two guys as a part of his band seemed to rejuvenate Zombie to the level of energy he used to display when he was still in White Zombie and the early days of his solo records. “Electric Head, Part 2” was just the swift kick in the ass I needed and besides that familiar crushing riff in “Thunder Kiss ‘65” was easily my favorite moment of the set and possibly even day. Unlike the day before we all managed to stay together this time and get back to our hotel with enough time to shut it down so we could do it all over again one more time.

SETLIST: Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, Superbeast, Living Dead Girl, More Human Than Human, Get Your Boots On! That’s the End of Rock and Roll, Electric Head, Part 2: The Ecstacy, In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High, Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O., Pussy Liquor, Ddd, Thunder Kiss ’65, Helter Skelter, Dragula

Aftershock 10/25/15

This morning was the very definition of a value buzz. I think I drank about half a light beer before I was buzzing again. Which means it took me about another two before I was closing in on full retard…at about 8:30 am. Thank god for the motherly instincts of Marvin, who ventured out of the campground and brought back breakfast burritos for the gang. Life saver. I was right as rain after our “campsite” neighbors came over and smoked me out. From our site we could hear Faith No More doing their sound check, which was pretty awesome but they kept playing “Midlife Crisis” right up to the climax and then stopping. At least we knew they would be playing it later.

The first band I cared about today was Eagles of Death Metal. Even though I had seen them twice before, the first time was only for a partial set (see Street Scene 9/20/08) and both times were without Josh Homme behind the drum kit. Not that the music had crazy drum beats or that Homme was a virtuoso drummer, but I respect him immensely as a musician from Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures (essentially another QOTSA album with better backing musicians). They rocked and seemed like they truly enjoyed being there playing these songs for everyone.

Next up I got to see Red Fang for the first time. All it took for me to like this band was hearing the song “Wires,” which Joe turned me on to. This band was exactly what I was looking for and I was hooked after that. Rock and Roll pure and simple. Generally I prefer to see bands at their own headlining shows because they can “stretch out” and play a longer set instead of 45 minutes to an hour. One thing I do like about these festivals besides the value of so many bands for one price at one time is that the stage setup is usually stark and devoid of crazy props which allows the focus to be on power of the music. Red Fang did not need much of a production and I cannot imagine that they would have had one even if I would have seen them at a small venue by themselves.

After that was Stone Temple Pilots…sort of. It was STP but with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park singing. I LOVE Stone Temple Pilots and I like Linkin Park so I was not opposed to this arrangement but I obviously knew going in that it would not be the same as with Scott Weiland. I just looked at it like I was going to see the best STP cover band that existed. We all sang along to the songs that we loved and let a spade be a spade.

Onward to the setting sun for my third privilege of seeing Jane’s Addiction. I am not a giant Jane’s fan but they are always enjoyable to see because Perry Farrell is just the right amount of nut to make a great frontman, Dave Navarro is a guitar guru and Stephen Perkins is a monster on the drums.

Deftones played next and I must say that I think at this point I was starting to drift away to drunk island because I have no photo evidence of the show from this point on. Maybe I was just feeling it so much that I could not be bothered to distract myself from the show. I think I have seen the Deftones more than any other band (have you read the rest of the blog?) but they are always great to see. True road warriors that are no strangers to the stage. I don’t remember this set being particularly on the heavy side as far as the music was concerned. They have super heavy songs and more dreamy atmospheric-type songs and I feel like they leaned more towards the latter.

Faith No More closed out the entire festival and were the band I most looked forward to on this day. I had just seen them for the first time back in April and since then had only fallen more in love with the album Sol Invictus. The song “Sunny Side Up” had become sort of an inside joke between Joe and I and we could not stop singing that shit to each other the whole trip. The stage setup and set list were pretty darn identical to the time we saw them in April but the new songs were much more familiar at this point. I wish they would have played “Cone of Shame” or “Last Cup of Sorrow” but like the Rolling Stones said you can’t always get what you want. The song “Epic” still holds up and somehow sounds even more fierce after all these times the band has been forced to play it. There was also a pretty funny moment after they played “Midlife Crisis” when they broke into the song “End of the Road” by Boyz 2 Men. Funny Fuckers.

Epicenter 9/22/12

What started in 2009 became “Southern California’s Rock Festival” that took place annually at various venues around Los Angeles. I had not attended since that inaugural date but this year’s lineup piqued my interest because it had been four to five years since I had seen Scars on Broadway, Deftones and Stone Temple Pilots. As far as I’m concerned the other bands were a nice bonus. Bob drove Tom and I up to Irvine with just enough time to make a beer run, check into our hotel and get over to the Irvine Amphitheater. The trouble began with a toothache that turned our beer run into a beer and whiskey run. My tooth had been bothering me for a couple days but I did not have time to go to the dentist so I figured whiskey would act as a redneck remedy. Unfortunately for anyone in my path it also acted as a gateway to a very intoxicated me.

I remember wandering around the grounds and seeing a little bit of bands on the second stage like Hollywood Undead but Dead Sara was the first band we really gave any shits about. It had been five months since we saw them open for Chevelle and blow them off the stage, which was just a couple weeks removed from the release of their self-titled debut album. They put on a hell of a show this time too but the music just did not seem to translate as well to a bigger stage.

Chevelle made good on the opportunity at redemption by cranking it up to the level of performance we had come to expect over the years. It was weird to see them play in the daylight again since we had grown accustomed to the headlining shows.

Four years had elapsed since I was introduced to Scars on Broadway right here at this very same venue during the KROQ Weenie Roast. It was fun the way it went down that original time but now I had a solid four years of digesting the eponymous album, which made this show so much more fun to watch. Thanks to YouTuber “Gun Dink” you can also watch:

Bush was up next. It had been almost a year to the day since we had last seen them open for Chevelle. It was essentially the same show as that occasion with Gavin coming out through the crowd again.

I had not gotten the chance to see any songs from the excellent Diamond Eyes album performed since my last Deftones concert was about five years before this so I was beyond elated when they started their set with my two favorite songs off the album. They were still a couple months away from releasing Koi No Yokan but they still played two songs from the album. Deftones rocked but it must be said that right about this time I was getting really ornery and ended up breaking the seat in front of me if that is any indication of what planet I was on. I also found a number of shitty 5-10 second videos on my phone afterwards of really good shots of the ground and pretty much anything but the stage with me screaming along for audio.

SETLIST: Rocket Skates, Diamond Eyes, Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), My Own Summer (Shove It), Digital Bath, You’ve Seen the Butcher, Bloody Cape, Leathers, Rosemary, Change (In the House of Flies), 7 Words

STP had released their eponymous album since I had last seen them about four years before this so I excited to see them again. I was pretty lit for their performance but do remember Scott Weiland was a dancing machine and seemed to be very present for this performance as he provided a lot of banter in between songs. I also remember that Dean’s guitar playing was on fire. We did not know it at the time but sadly this would be the last time we would see Scott Weiland front Stone Temple Pilots as the very next night would be his final performance ever with the band.

SETLIST: Crackerman, Vaseline, Hickory Dichotomy, Meatplow, Big Empty, Between the Lines, Interstate Love Song, Plush, Tumble in the Rough, Big Bang Baby, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Unglued, Sex Type Thing

After the show we took a bus to our hotel and I almost immediately got kicked out of our hotel bar because I basically fell forward into the bar. This lead to all three of us smoking weed in Bob’s car in the parking lot. Neither Tom nor Bob ever smoke weed so that was a fitting end to such an eventful day.

Stone Temple Pilots 7/27/08

Twice in the same month? You bet your sweet ass. For some reason concert promoters thought it would be a good idea to have some concerts this summer in what was essentially a small practice field in the southwest corner of the parking lot of the stadium where the Chargers played. They touted it as “Concerts on the Green” at Qualcomm and the space probably held about 5,000 people. The show was general admission, which meant Sam, Marvin, Bob and I were free to roam as we pleased which of course meant up close in the action.

Wolfmother opened and was awesome, especially when they played “Joker & the Thief.” They were still touring behind their eponymous debut album released nearly three years before this. I am continually amazed at two and three piece bands.

As for STP it was essentially the same show I saw earlier in the month (sans mushrooms); great energy, great set list, great performance. Weiland seemed to be a little more riled up but STP did have a history with San Diego. At one point during “Sex Type Thing” Weiland climbed the scaffolding, which is always a crowd pleaser.

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Stone Temple Pilots 7/2/08

Red Rocks is the only other place ever mentioned in the same breath as the Gorge in terms of concert venues so of course I had to go see for myself what all the rave reviews were about. The excuse to finally go came to fruition when STP decided to stop at Red Rocks on their summer tour, which happened to align perfectly with my friends Jason and Susan living in Denver for the moment and a few unexpected days off from work. Marvin and his girlfriend at the time decided to come along partially because the girlfriend’s parents that lived in Denver happened to be out of town that week, thus giving us a free place to stay.

I had not seen STP since they headlined the Family Values tour back in 2001 when they were touring for their last release, the criminally underrated Shangri-La Dee Da. STP disbanded not long after in 2003 due to tensions within the band. After the disbandment Scott made a couple albums with Velvet Revolver and the Deleo brothers made one with Army of Anyone. Now they were back for a “reunion tour” and the fans were there to welcome them with open arms. There was no new album to promote, just a celebration of the badass music already in the catalog.

Red Rocks was exactly as advertised; a natural amphitheater embedded in the red rock formations in the middle of nowhere outside of Denver. The interesting part of the area to me is that these red rocks are only in the one small area where the amphitheater is. Everything else around is nothing but flat land.

I am not sure why but we arrived to the venue fairly early which left a lot of time to drink and screw around in the parking lot beforehand. The only thing we were missing was mushrooms. If I was going to come all that way to compare one natural amphitheater to another I thought it was worth doing it right. Unfortunately Jason’s connection fell through. We befriended our parking lot neighbors but they did not have any either. Then in a moment of sheer serendipity the universe must have heard my request because right after our parking lot neighbors told me they did not have any some random guy came around the car and asked if we wanted to buy some mushrooms. You can’t make this stuff up folks.

I cannot tell you who opened the show but I can say with confidence that the mushrooms were strong and Stone Temple Pilots were on point for this show. They sounded fantastic! I had a great experience at Red Rocks but I still have to give the edge to the Gorge.

SETLIST: Big Empty, Wicked Garden, Big Bang Baby, Silvergun Superman, We Will Rock You, Vasoline, Lounge Fly, Lady Picture Show, Sour Girl, Creep, Crackerman, Plush, Interstate Love Song, Too Cool Queenie, Coma, Down, Sex Type Thing, Sin, Dead & Bloated, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart

The Family Values Tour 11/16/01

I had seen each of these bands before but Lucinda had not. It was just her and I at this show and we were able to get very good seats on the left side of the stage. Static-X had just released their second album Machine about six months before this show and had the material pretty polished by the time they rolled into Portland. Staind was touring behind their recently released album Break the Cycle. Staind is an interesting band to watch live because Aaron Lewis doesn’t move around the stage very quickly, no matter how heavy the song is. They did rock though. Linkin Park was also there still promoting their first album and played it almost in its entirety. Finally came the real reason we spent our Friday night at the concert, Stone Temple Pilots. They were touring for their severely underrated album Shangri-La Dee Da. Scott Weiland appeared to be drunk at this show but the band nonetheless put on a very great entertaining show. Scott thanked the people who had drinks with him at the strip club Mary’s the prior evening. During “Hollywood Bitch” they had a very slutty looking lady come dance around on stage only to reveal at the end of the song that it was actually a man. They had Chester from Linkin Park come sing a song with them at some point. The highlight was when Weiland started to rant about how rock n’ roll was stolen from all the black jazz musicians. He jumped out into the crowd and walked right through it to the very back of the arena all while ranting. The funny thing is that he didn’t have any security near him but nobody touched him. I think everyone was a little scared of the guy. The other thing that stands out in my mind is a moment when they left the stage. Moments later the whole stage revolved 180 degrees and there they were sitting on couches playing an acoustic version of the Beatles “Revolution.” Magical.

KUFO Rockfest 7/15/00

The Tattoo the Earth tour was a tour that featured several bands and prominent tattoo artists. It also took the place of the normal KUFO Rockfest for the year 2000. I was interested in Downset because my friends and I had got into their self-titled album years earlier. Their set was alright. I would have been into Sepultura but Max Cavalera had already left the band by this point. Mudvayne was there but not yet on my radar. Coal Chamber was scary to watch simply because the band members look scary. Slayer was Slayer. Even though I’m not a huge Sevendust fan they impressed me because the two guitar players were doing some insane things going back and forth feeding off each other. This was the second time I saw Slipknot but I was still not really a fan of their music. I remember one moment when Corey Taylor wanted everyone to crouch down and jump up right when the song hit its peak. That was pretty weird because I have never seen so many people do as they were told at a rock show. The truth is that I really could of gave a shit about the other bands; I was there to see STP again for the first time in six years. This show marked STP’s return to Portland for the first time since they had reunited. They had just released their comeback album, No. 4, the previous fall. I attended the show with Joe, Roscoe, and Lucinda. Joe and Roscoe had both driven in from out of town to stay with Lucinda and I and had a little quarrel later this night at our house. As far as STP’s performance, it was pretty flawless. Scott Weiland was upset with one of the DJ’s at KUFO because in an interview earlier that day he had been asked questions about his family. One highlight was putting Lucinda on my shoulders so she could see (she’s about 5 foot 2). She was the only one at this point towering over the crowd and therefore Scott Weiland was looking right at her for a good portion of time while he was singing. Another highlight was when they played “Crackerman.” The place just erupted. The final thing I remember was them pumping police siren sounds through the sound system when they left the stage, which was funny because they seemed to be mocking all of Weiland’s recent problems with the police.

STP-4

Stone Temple Pilots 7/30/94

This was my first road trip concert because someone finally had a vehicle! If you’ve been to the Gorge then no explanation is necessary but if you haven’t been there I highly suggest you go to a concert there as soon as possible. It is located in Central Washington and is literally the most gorgeous outdoor amphitheater in existence. It is special because it is naturally carved into the side of a hill and all around are unbelievable views of the Columbia River flowing between the cliffs of one of the most geologically rich areas in the world. That someone who had a vehicle was my friend Marvin. I had known him since elementary school but we were now hanging out more because we shared a whole clique of friends and lived across a horse pasture from each other. The two of us went with our other friend Jack but unbeknownst to my parents. They were pretty strict about letting me go places. I don’t know if this was to be protective, controlling, or they just didn’t trust me. I was willing to risk the consequences of getting caught. So after I lied and told my parents I was spending the night at Marvin’s house we left for the Gorge. From where we lived it only took about an hour to drive there. The lineup was as follows: Jawbox, Redd Kross, the Meat Puppets, and Stone Temple Pilots. I hadn’t really heard the other 3 bands but immediately became an STP fan and bought the album Core after hearing “Sex Type Thing” for the first time. The album Purple had been out less than 2 months and had already become our group of friends staple summer CD. Apparently we weren’t alone because the album reached the top of the charts not long before this concert took place. The other 3 bands all put on an excellent show and we were in the floor section in front of the stage for the entire time. As soon as STP came out the floor section was so packed I couldn’t even lift my arms over my head to prevent it from being kicked by stray crowd surfers (think sardines). There was one gigantic lava light to each side of the stage, which looked extremely cool set against the night. Though I can’t remember exactly what songs they played I do feel lucky to have seen them at this point because they only had two albums of material to choose from. I also feel lucky because by the time their next album came out problems had reportedly started to arise from Scott Weiland’s budding obsession with drugs, which prevented the band from touring and eventually lead to their first disbandment. My first concert souvenir came from this show in the form of an STP t-shirt. The front had the words “Stone Temple” in the same cream color as the shirt surrounded by red and the back had the word “Pilots” in blue with a little stick figure guy riding a bike underneath. I loved that shirt so much that I destroyed it just from wearing it. The funny part about the shirt is that Marvin had purchased the same one and the next day we both wore them to the “Boat Races,” a.k.a. the biggest annual event in Tri-Cities, WA. It is one of only a handful of places professional hydroplanes stop each year to race but for most of the race-goers (including myself and associates starting just a few years later) it is just another reason to get drunk. We eventually ran into my parents at the races and though they had never seen me wear this shirt and Marvin was wearing the identical copy of it, I don’t think they were any the wiser to my whereabouts from the night before.

Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world