A week ago I had the opportunity to see Stone Temple Pilots perform in nearby Hamilton Ontario. I was rather excited as I didn’t even know they were on tour until a friend alerted me a few days before the show. I had seen the Pilots once before, way back on October 18th, 1993 at the Concert Music Hall in Toronto. That show was not long after their debut Core album hit stores. To be honest, I didn’t really know their music very well, but a buddy had tickets and I love a live show. “Sex Type Thing” was a highlight for me that night as STP won me over into fan category with their high energy stage performance and great supporting act in The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones. While I understand that that was almost twenty years ago and the band and especially frontman Scott Weiland have been through some ups and downs, trials and tribulations, many of which have been highly publicised, this was nowhere near the STP that won me over into their corner as a fan.
The opening band, Crash Kings, took the stage at 8pm and played for 36 minutes only. They are a three-piece band with the keyboardist handling vocal duties. While they sounded great and performed well, their lacklustre stage presence certainly did nothing to instil me into album purchase. There did seem to be some crowd recognition as they rolled into what would be their final song, apparently played on a local radio station according to my concert companion, but they still seemed glued to their spots on the stage.
After what seemed like an eternity of set changing, the Pilots finally took the stage at about 9:40pm, opening the show with the song “Sin” from the Core CD.
They seemed lifeless and uninterested even, maybe it was catching from Crash Kings. There was very little crowd interaction, no introduction of the band, no “thanks, Hamilton” and very little song introduction.
Certainly not what I would call a rocking show from a band that obviously needs to work on their fanbase judging from the smaller venue of Copps Coliseum and only using half of the arena at that, which did not even appear to be sold out.
There were many songs missing from the set, including “Sex Type Thing”, “Wicked Garden”, “Sour Girl”, “Creep”, “Love Pop’s Suicide” and “Lady Picture Show”. I understand that there is not enough time to hear everything with a catalogue of so many great songs, but perhaps if they had played more than an hour and 20 minutes for the $80 ticket price the crowd would have felt a bit better.
Don’t get me wrong, the sound was excellent and the DeLeo brothers seemed note perfect with Scott‘s voice being in top form, but then again, maybe that was just all the beer that I drank!
It did pick up speed eventually with the encore being the best part of the show, but by that point, for me, it was too little too late. Then, bang, the lights came on and it was over at not even an hour and a half and so many songs missing, all in all very disappointing.
Sin, Vasoline, Crackerman, Hollywood Bitch, Hickory Dichotomy, Meat Plow, Still Remains, Big Empty, Black Again, Between the Lines, Interstate Love Song, Plush, Tumble in the Rough, Big Bang Baby, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Encores: Unglued, Dead & Bloated
Cheers,
The Meister
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