Stone Temple Pilots Concert - June 29, 2008,

At Nokia Grand Prairie (which counts as a Dallas show).

Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland has to be worn out. He's been to rehab and court more than Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty combined, and 15 years of the rocknroll lifestyle hasn't helped. After a weird and discomfitting stint as the lead singer of Velvet Revolver (all of Guns N Roses except Axl Rose), he is back with the original members of STP for a summer tour and forthcoming studio album. As he strutted his stuff on Sunday night I couldn't help but enjoy most of the show, if not the sound mix or torn up crowd that looked like they'd been smoking and drinking continuously on Lake Lewisville since graduating from high school in 1994. Click below for lots of pictures, a cool set list, and the man that nearly killed me.

The band has a ridiculous number of hits, with nearly 2 hours worth of great recognizable material. Weiland started out in a full suit, blood red fedora, and sparkly white shoes, but slowly stripped to just pants (and the sparkly white shoes). They opened the show with a good version of "Big Empty" and then proceeded to march through "Sex Type Thing", "Plush", "Creep", "Interstate Love Song", "Vasoline", "Sour Girl", "Dead and Bloated", "Wicked Garden", "Silvergun Superman", "Big Bang Baby", "Trippin' on a hole in a paper heart", "Lady Picture Show", and a few more, including Queen's "We Will Rock You." The big hits were all good, but the band's focus and intensity waned on many of the songs. I hated the sound mix as well, drowning out the vocals and lead guitar with heavy drum and bass, which might make sense at a GWAR concert, but not here. The crowd was not as raucous as I would have thought, with very tepid screaming/yelling between songs and prior to the encore - bride attributes this to the eternity between songs.

Weiland is still a charismatic singer, and his snake arm dancing made me pine for the old days. All in all it was a decent, but not great show. It did serve as a great reminder of how many good songs they have, and prompted me to put a couple of their CD's in my car to revisit the greatness.

Of course, my review wouldn't be complete without mentioning that bride and our group was tormented by a large man dancing and sweating on everybody. See below:

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