Stone Temple Pilots Concert Review
This Year, I decided it might be a good idea to start reviewing the concerts I've seen and take note of the set lists that the artists have played. I've seen so many shows over the years, I wish I could (in a way) relive them or read back on how good (or bad) they were. This review is more of a review on the overall experience rather than just the show - I tend to rant...

So without further ado... Stone Temple Pilots

May 31st, 2008 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC BANK ARTS CENTER (Lawn Seat)



SET LIST

Big Empty
Wicked Garden
Big Bang Baby
Vasoline
Lady Picture Show
Lounge Fly
Cracker Man
Sour Girl
Creep
Plush
Interstate Love Song
Dumb Love
Sunday Girl
Sin
Sex Type Thing
Trippin On A Hole In A Paper Heart

Encore...
Money Money Money (jam)
Dead and Bloated

Bows... (Wet My Bed plays in the background)

PNC Bank Arts Center (to me) is the optimal summer venue... It's close to home, easy to get to, and on a beautiful day one can tail gate and enjoy the company of friends while waiting in anticipation for the music to begin...

Things have changed over the years a little - Thanks to some bright young adults (with bright little pills, and other illegal type contraband), our privileges to tail gate in the parking lots are being threatened - Over the years, kids have died from overdosing on various substances, there's been TONS of underaged drinking in the parking lots leading to TONS of arrests also leading to an enormous presence of NJ state troopers - The relaxing summer afternoon experience is really starting to turn into a hassle and an annoyance

From the moment we pulled into the parking lot, we were thinking in our heads, "I hope it's okay to open a couple cold ones..." Luckily we noticed that a number of people who arrived before us were already drinking... A sigh of relief came over me as we parked the car... Maybe this wasn't going to be all that bad... We got ourselves settled in some lawn chairs and cracked open the beers... However, not even a minute later all of a sudden 2 state troopers "tackled" some young guys in the car parked in front of ours... They put them in cuffs and started searching their pockets, their entire car, and their shoes (yes their shoes)... Apparently these morons had brought some kind of pills or something to the concert and the cops received a tip as to their location in the lot... It really really killed our "relaxing experience" because we spent our time sitting there staring, and talking about what was going on all the time thinking, "I hope we don't get in trouble for drinking beers..."

Once the animals were taken away in cages, we sat back and started to enjoy ourselves... However like clockwork, 10 minutes later two state troopers walk right up to us and ask us for ID. Willingly, we said "no problem, here you go." They checked everyone's ID (everything's going fine) and then they find out one of the people in our party has a suspended license or something - So they had to call in his license to base to make sure it was valid - and that takes another 10 minutes - so we're sitting there trying to stay relaxed, while these officers are just standing there in front of us... and it again, RUINS another fine moment that I look forward to all Winter and Spring!

We decided to head into the venue and get settled...

Filter was STP's opening act - They played extremely well and sounded very well rehearsed - Richard Patrick (lead singer) can still hit those high notes with guts - It was an extreme pleasure to listen to them play live - They closed with Hey Man Nice Shot (as expected) and the crowd reacted extremely extremely well to their performance - The singer nonchalantly announced STP would be on next and the crowd went electric

Then came the wait...

9:45PM rolled around (the time when a band usually steps on stage at PNC) and STP was no where to be found... 10PM comes... still no band... I started to get a little worried - PNC usually cuts a band off by 11PM - The crowd began to start booing as 10:30PM came and there was no sign of the band - Somewhere between that time and 10:45PM the lights went out - the crowd went half bizzerk (already PO'd at the wait and the thought that the show would be cut short), and STP emerged

They opened up with a downer - Big Empty - I was expecting something with more energy - Scott sounded old and flat - The band was missing notes - Still I was happy to be where I was standing. Wicked Garden came on and the energy really started to pick up... though as they kept playing I could tell Scott Weiland was clearly messed up on something - At one point between songs, Weiland started to apologize to the audience and the bass player cut him off (basically saying... don't mind him)

The show really started to become a real let down - They really seemed washed up and unrehearsed - I was not very impressed at all - I'm reading all this news now about the band considering another album if the tour goes well... yeah not so much

Even when they bowed at the end with "wet my bed" playing in the background, all I could think of was Scott being high off his rocker which basically said "fuck you fans... I don't give a shit about you"

On June 20th, I'm going to be seeing The Cure (front row center) at MSG - I'll let you know how that is ;-)