Live and Stone Temple Pilots shared stature as cred-deficient but actually quite good radio-friendly alt-rock bands in the mid-'90s, and now both are well into the member-shuffling, nostalgia-tour-circuit phase of the career cycle. Those journeys are intersecting this fall in the form of a co-headlining tour and a new single out today.
The groups are touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their blockbuster 1994 albums Throwing Copper and Purple, with various dates opened by either Soul Asylum or Our Lady Peace. As we went over when the tour was announced, STP are now touring with their third frontman, Jeff Gutt, after the deaths of founding singer Scott Weiland and his replacement, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. Meanwhile, frontman Ed Kowalczyk is the only member of Live's classic lineup currently in the band. He left in 2009 and returned in 2016, and at this point his backing band fully comprises dudes who've joined since 2016.
To promote the tour, which launches today, Live have released their first new song in six years, "Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin')." (Absolutely perfect title for a Live comeback single, no notes.) It may not feature any of Kowalczyk's old bandmates, but it does have STP guitarist Dean DeLeo. There's also a lyrical reference to the water's edge, which I thought was a callback to an old Live track before I realized, no, that's Seven Mary Three.
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