No sooner do we mention Amy Winehouse's return to form in Lisbon than Scott Weiland reminds us about his own wobbly self. Looks like the Stone Temple Pilots reunion is going about as swimmingly as we predicted. He gave us false hope by not getting kicked out or arrested during STP's debut at the Harry Houdini Estate in in L.A., then showing he can still gyrate/dervish on Kimmel, buttwo weeks after the band started their big summer tour, there was no dervishing to be had. Nope, according to those who saw it in full, STP were an anti-climactic bust at K-ROCK's "Return Of The Rock" night with Filter and Ashes Divide. Scott, nostalgia isn't supposed to be this depressing. (Same goes for you, Filter.) Here's Weiland in NJ, apologizing for starting an hour late, etc., etc. He's also apparently mentioning that it's a hometown show because of the brothers DeLeo and their Jersey ties. The NY Times quotes Robert DeLeo as saying, "apology accepted, brother," and trying to start the show. Here, watch.
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Yes, the NY Times were there at the PNC Bank Arts Center. They help fill in a few of the blanks regarding Weiland's act of contrition.
[Weiland] seemed bedraggled and bushed, like a scarecrow. His first comments were barely coherent, and what came next was dispiriting. "Sometimes you make crazy choices," he said, in a distinctly undefiant tone...
The show got better, but not by much. Stone Temple Pilots was always a riff-driven band with an impressive low-end churn, and a handful of its songs are exceptionally sturdy. So it made sense that the crowd carried the choruses of "Plush" and "Dead and Bloated," and that the band nailed a handful of its other 1990s staples, like "Interstate Love Song" and "Vaseline." But the feeling imparted by these performances was desultory and joyless. The band never rose above a sort of grim competence.
It was the same with Mr. Weiland. While he expertly struck the image of a rock star -- strutting and preening, and shedding his white jacket and T-shirt to reveal a sinewy torso -- his voice sounded less flexible than usual, and he sometimes seemed nearly out of breath. He forgot some lyrics and flubbed others, and often used a megaphone as a prop, or perhaps a crutch.
Read the rest at the NY Times. Sorta feels like deja vu, Amy Scott.
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Let us know how the next shows are Detroit, St. Paul, and Kansas City. You must be psyched.
