Warning to concert goers: Pearl Jam will spoil your expectations and warp your view on how long a great concert should last. An average, non-festival Pearl Jam show contains a 15+ song main set, a 5+ song first encore, and a 5+ song second encore. A good non-Pearl Jam show will probably have a main set and a one or two-song encore.
In any case, this concert review isn’t about Pearl Jam. It’s about the recently-reunited Stone Temple Pilots. Unlike the BC/JC Smashing Pumpkins of 2007-2009, and the current Billy Corgan SP, this STP reunion has all four original members.
Earlier this week, I had a dream that Stone Temple Pilots played at my old high school gym, and that the DeLeo brothers (Dean on guitar and Robert on bass) could not perform. The DeRamos brothers (my brother Jon and yours truly Ryan) had to perform in their place. (To remind you, this was a dream.) We controlled the setlist, and played a lot of their more experimental, allegedly drug-influenced, Beatlesque “jazz-pop” (for lack of a better descriptor) from their Purple and Tiny Music… albums. My brother played guitar and I played bass for most of this dream gig. We closed the subconscious show with “Plush,” with my brother handling bass duties and myself taking up the six-string axe. It was a good rock ‘n roll dream.
Other than the high school gym part, my dream was way off from the reality of the show. Yes, STP played at San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino’s bingo room (in Highland, California), which is converted every Thursday night as a concert hall. Let’s just say that San Manuel’s bingo room sounds slightly better than the Forum (and that was a piss-poor sounding venue the last time I was there), but a lot worse than the Gibson Amphitheatre. Oh, Gibson Amp – how do I love thee?
San Manuel doesn’t allow cameras in the casino or showroom, so I didn’t bother to smuggle on in to take pictures. Several audience members used their cell phone cameras, and I have a camera function on my cell phone, but I just enjoyed the show (and took a few notes to help me write this review). In other words, there won’t be any snapshots for this spiel.
The opening act was a Los Angeles-based band called Something to Burn. Before the show, outside of the bingo room, there was a dude who was wearing guy-liner, a sleeveless CBGB t-shirt, and a gaudy belt buckle. I thought to myself: Will most of the audience be in “rock star” costume tonight? It turned out that the dude outside of the venue was the lead singer of Something to Burn. So I guess it’s OK that he was in costume.
I’m not too big on intentionally-anthemic, hard rock from the “Los Angeles scene,” so in short, STB (that’s a B) was not my cup of tea. In any case, the lead singer said something to the effect that Highland was in the middle of nowhere, which is a short-sighted stereotype, especially from those who say that they’re from LA. Between Downtown Los Angeles (in Los Angeles County) and Highland (in San Bernardino County) is a virtually endless string of buildings, city lights, and bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour(s). That is the beauty (and the bane) of the Greater Los Angeles Region of Southern California. Therefore, Highland is not in the middle of nowhere – rendering said stereotype-based joke less-than-funny. (If the show was at the Morongo Casino, 30 minutes away from San Manuel, then that is more toward “nowhere.”)
Geographical semantics aside, while STB is not my cup of tea, I did take some good notes on the lyrical content of their set, and other observations. For instance: STB started at 7:30 PM and ended at 7:55 PM. After the show, I went to their MySpace and figured out their setlist (warning: iTunes buttons will open the iTunes program, if installed):
1. Leaders Down 
2. Lie to Me
3. The Change
4. Below
5. Start Again
6. Say Goodbye
Something to Burn’s debut album is called Transitions
At around 8:30 PM, Stone Temple Pilots – Scott Weiland, Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, and Eric Kretz – hit the stage. Their intro music was a piano tune reminiscent of the “No Memory” instrumental on Core. STP’s setlist lacked some deep album cuts (surely due to their five-album-where-are-the-b-sides? discography), and instead drew heavily from their first two albums, Core
1. Silvergun Superman
2. Wicked Garden
3. Vasoline
4. Big Empty
Dean gave away one of his guitar slides after during the second verse of “Big Empty.”
5. Army Ants
The band played one of many musical interlude jams that showed that they were having fun as a reunited band, but I don’t think it gave the audience much too chew on (with their ears). Also, other than thanking the audience a few times, and introducing the song titles, Weiland was not very talkative between songs. I personally enjoy stage banter from the lead singer, if not from all the band members with microphones.
6. Sour Girl
As mentioned earlier, STP played a lot from Core and Purple, and very few from Tiny Music… and No. 4
I should mention that throughout the STP set, people from the “nosebleed” sections (since the venue is flat, I really mean the back of the room) filtered their way to the empty aisles to get closer. It was generally nice to have these people share their energy fro the music, other than the few tall people who blocked the views of people who actually purchased good seats.
7. Creep
During “Creep,” the security cleared the aisles, and sent the aforementioned people from whence they came (the back of the room).
8. Crackerman
The crowd came back during “Crackerman.” Security – in reality, casino police with guns and whatnot – did not come back to clear the aisles again. San Manuel should hire some “yellow shirts” to do some better audience management.
9. Plush
10. Interstate Love Song
11. Down
In lieu of stage banter, the band played another jam. This time it was a bit more jazzy.
12. Sex Type Thing
Another jam had Dean with some wah-wah in his guitar noodling.
13. Unglued
The band left the stage for an encore break. Well, hopefully, they would come back for an encore. While we often take for granted that Pearl Jam would come back for multiple encore sets, I made sure that I participated in the cheering to encourage STP to return.
During the encore break, there was more “No Memory”-like piano music. The band hit the stage, and Dean started to jam along with the recorded piano track. Then Robert and Kretz joined in. I don’t remember which jam session Weiland participated in; he played the maracas. In any case, Robert threw a pick to the audience after the jam session.
14. Dead and Bloated
Along with “Crackerman” and (if I remember well) “Sex Type Thing,” Weiland sang with a megaphone during “Dead and Bloated.”
15. Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart
“Trippin’” is a great song, but they could have (and well, should have) picked a better closer. Kretz threw an STP-branded drum head into the crowd like a Frisbee, and the four Pilots took a bow to end the show. The show ended around 9:50 PM; another hour (or at least a half-hour) would have been awesome!
All in all, Stone Temple Pilots kicked ass. While Weiland did not attempt to hit some high notes (but compromised with either a lower note in the key or a lower octave), his tone overall was pretty spot-on. He took on his raspy Scott Weiland voice for virtually all the songs and not his wannabe Layne Staley Core voice – thank goodness. In any case, I knew all the songs on the setlist; I sang along (as did the rest of the audience); and it was a great show.
I just have to remind myself that 13 songs, a few random improv jams, and a two-song encore constitutes a great show – by any band. We’ll leave the epic Pearl Jam marathon (15+ main set/5+ first encore/5+ second encore/witty stage banter/integrated jams/cover songs/etc.) in its own category.
