STP at the Hollywood Bowl 6/24/08

From the "I should have done this when I was 18" file, on Tuesday 6/24, I saw the reunited Stone Temple Pilots at the Hollywood Bowl. Also in attendance was TMS' own Brant Brown. No traffic for this one, which was a pleasant change from the three hour freeway debacle to see R.E.M. I threw some trash at an LAPD bike after the show out of spite anyway. Take that Pep Streebeck!

Going into this one, I told myself if Weiland doesn't fall of the stage or otherwise embarrass himself, I would be happy. Scott and the band exceeded these modest expectations by a long shot, putting on one of the best rock shows I've ever been too.

Back to the show itself in a minute... As always, people watching was part of the fun. We counted no fewer than four Iron Maiden shirts before the show. I can't say I would even suspect anyone I knew owns an Iron Maiden album, but here are four guys who apparently do. Another gem outside the Bowl was the father/son pair with matching Guns N Roses shirts. Inside, the group in front of us consisted of three forty-ish women and two teenagers. I thought, "Hey that's cool, they took their kids to the concert." I was off a little. When STP came on, the old bitties started moving to the music and lighting up a bowl of weed while the two kids sat there nearly falling asleep. Damn kids these days.

Just before 9:00, after what I hear was an uninspiring performance by an uninspiring man, Frank Black, an AIDS-thin Weiland and the rest of STP takes the stage and goes into Big Empty. It was never my favorite song of theirs, but it sounded pretty good live. After that, they start ripping into the rock, knocking my dick in the dirt with Wicked Garden and Big Bang Baby. About this time, I text TMS bartender Chaim Witz to eloquently notify him that this STP show is apparently much better than the one he attended not long ago.

With no new material to support, the set list read like a greatest hits CD, but you can't hold that against them. Hearing 16 year old gems like Crackerman and Sex Type Thing live and loud was more than enough to keep me and the sell out crowd entertained (yes, believe it or not, Core came out in 1992). Videos courtesy of some guy with much better seats than me who posted them on youtube for all to see.

The set list:

Big Empty / Wicked Garden / Big Bang Baby / Silvergun Superman / Vasoline / Lounge Fly / Lady Picture Show / Sour Girl / Creep / Crackerman / Plush / Interstate Love Song / Too Cool Queenie / Coma / Down / Sex Type Thing / Sin / encore / Dead & Bloated / Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart