Stone Temple Pilots or Should It Be Stoned? – Rockfest Review
When I started writing the review of this band only one word came to mind, WOW! I say this for a couple of reasons, let me explain. First of all, I like Stone Temple Pilots and they sounded great, had an awesome stage show with a large screen stretching all the way across the back of the stage showing 70’s psychedelic images which could be seen for miles. Yes, all the hits were played: “Plush“, Vasoline“, “Trippin On a Hole In A Paper Heart“, “Sex Type Thing“, “Interstate Love Song“, “Big Empty“, and many more. These things were cool but when it comes to the lead singer, Scott Weiland, not cool.
This brings me to my second point. When you think of a big time band like Stone Temple Pilots as a headliner on the Saturday night of a four day music festival, you would expect the lead singer to address the crowd and have some good interaction with the crowd, but not this lead singer, not even once! In fact, between songs Scott Weiland would start mumbling about things like how we are the most superior beings on the planet, the media sucks, and how we don’t care what handbag Paris Hilton bought last week. I really think that on several occasions if the band hadn’t started playing a song, Scott would still be walking around aimlessly, mumbling. The people around us were either fed up with his crap and wanted to see a better show or there were some people feeling sorry for him. Scott missed lyrics, had to hold onto the railing at one point, and just seemed to be somewhere else other than on that stage. Britne left after only 5 songs. Lots of other people left too. I tried to watch the whole show, but I left the VIP area and watched the rest of the show from GA while enjoying a corndog.
Some of our Rockfest friends said the show just sucked and others enjoyed it because the music was good and they had a good time watching Scott’s antics. We are aware of Scott Weiland’s past substance abuse problems, but if you’re not ready to be sober and give it your all for your fans, then don’t bother to show up. As for the rest of the band, they were great and hopefully Scott can get his act cleaned up and put on a show like we know he can. Maybe it’s time to use YouTube or MySpace and find a replacement? Anyone going to a STP show in the near future, we hope you see the Scott Weiland on his “A” game and not the dazed and confused Scott we saw.
There are still a few dates scheduled if you are wanting to check them out for yourself:
| Sat. 08/02/08 | Oklahoma City, OK | Tickets |
| Sun. 08/03/08 | Southaven, MS | Tickets |
| Wed. 08/06/08 | Wantagh, NY | Tickets |
| Wed. 08/13/08 | Bloomington, IL | Tickets |
| Thu. 08/14/08 | Hammond, IN | Tickets |
| Sat. 08/16/08 | Elizabeth, IN | Tickets |
| Sun. 08/17/08 | Charlotte, NC | Tickets |
| Tue. 08/19/08 | Orlando, FL | Tickets |
| Wed. 08/20/08 | Hollywood, FL | Tickets |
| Fri. 08/22/08 | Tampa, FL | Tickets |
| Sat. 08/23/08 | Alpharetta, GA | Tickets |
| Mon. 08/30/08 | Vancouver, BC – Foxfest | Tickets |
| Mon. 09/01/08 | Bend, OR | Tickets |
[tags]Stone Temple Pilots, Rockfest ‘08[/tags]
That’s really too bad. STP is a great band, and no matter how they tried, they haven’t been able to duplicate the chemistry else where. I guess the lightening doesn’t strike twice….
Weiland is a brilliant writer. Man, I just feel bummed thinking about how he’s messing up his own gifts. Many of us would probably give all four of our limbs to be in his shoes, having a shot at doing what he does with his talent.
ari
I agree with you Ari. I had never seen STP before and was really looking forward to the show. It is a shame that he is wasting all that talent.
Great article… I saw them at the WBCN River Rave in Boston on June 1st and they put on a great show, despite all Weilands issues.
Yeah, I had been reading reviews and it sounded like some of the shows have been good and some have been off nights for Weiland. Since I had never seen them before I was hoping our show would be good but we didn’t get so lucky. Thanks for visiting the site.