On May 31st 2008, NJrockstar.com covered the much anticipated Stone Temple Pilot reunion tour concert @ PNC Art Center in NJ. Although earlier dates in this tour described a decent show by the Pilots, along with somewhat decent Youtube clips, this show may have been the absolute worst concert we have ever attended in our lives! Lets look at the rundown.
For Starters:
The weather was not on the side of the PNC Center that day. On and off rain in the afternoon was quite rough at times and weather predictions suggested heavy rain right around concert time. Great to hear right? We knew this going in and arrived @ PNC center around 7:30 PM to tailgate ( at this point the sky was holding up). We hung in the parking lots with boatloads of other fans who were really siked up for this show. We actually had no interest in the 2 opening acts. One of which was the band “Filter” who has had moderate success in the music biz. Nevertheless, we didn’t enter the complex until their set was ending. We recall the lead singer of Filter trying to throw in his political opinion/comments in between songs but it was pretty pathetic and the crowd didnt connect at all. Finally, Fiter had some mercy on the crowd and ended their set. Hooray!
The garbage begins:
After Filter cleared the stage we had a big surprise…Opie and Anthony came out ( after all, this show was brought to the art center by K-Rock). They took the stage to prep the audience for STP and tried to plug their own stuff. I hate to say it but, the crowd was boo-ing them the whole time. They really were not funny at all. Then finally, they said “coming up next…Stone Temple Pilots!” What we didnt realize, at this point, was that STP was going to be late about 90 minutes! During this time we grabbed some beers and just absorbed the atmosphere. At this point, it did start to rain a bit but eventually tapered off.
Anticipation growing:
With the weather holding up now, we were hoping that it was gonna be a great show although everyone was getting restless becuase of the long delay. The crowd there was as expected. A bunch of old time STP fans as well as some new one. Mostly everyone was drunk. Some of which we puking in the bushes. Others were the pumped up “Frat Type” that kept hitting themselves in the chest with their own fist and saying “Yeah…Yeah..” Dont you just love these pikers? Now it was starting to get rediculous, it was 10:45 and still no activity on the stage. The crowd started chanting ” bullshit…bullshit”. You would kind of expect that kind of reaction at this point. Then finally, some activity perhaps?
The “Sad” but, Main Event begins:
After the most rediculous wait time ever, The Pilots finally took the stage around 11PM and this may have been the worst intro ever. No announcement by anyone. They just walked on the stage. Lead singer Scott Weiland said “sorry for the delay” and they started playing a moderate-slower tune. No energy whatsoever! The crowd seemed dazed and confused. Half way thru the first song you could clearly see the fans all looking at each other saying: “What the fuck”. Now, this is not just the opinion of Njrockstar here folks, everyone within in our listenting range was saying “they friggin suck!!! what the hell?” The music itself was on point yet lacking energy but the voice of lead singer Scott Weiland was absoluetley terrible and was ruining everything. He could not reach a note to save his life. You could clearly see him struggling to get the words out. Much different than the Scott we knew back in the day when the band was at its prime. Immediate speculations were 2 things:
1: That he was completely fucked up on drugs (he sure looked that way).
2: The years of Herion use, smoking and heavy drinking have ruined his voice.
This was clearly evident with every line that he “tried” to sing. The Pilots went into each one of their old songs with the same attitude. The rest of the band looked happy to be playing but as a whole, they just sucked. At this point they were about 20 minutes into the set and we couldn’t believe our eyes..there were a handful of people actually leaving! Now, we will give credit where it is due, they did start to pick up a bit and scott got a tad better into the middle of the set but he still was clearly distressed and struggling. He started to rely on his trademark, “bullhorn” which he sings into on many of thier old tunes. Almost like a 2nd singer or “alter-ego”. He must have been 30 pounds lighter then he was back in the day when they were at their peak. He looked quite ill. Watch this video as evidence and then read on….
Fade out:
Everywhere we looked, you could see the disappointment in this capacity crowd as Stone Temple Pilots played on. Hell, people we going to the snack stands, bathroom, taking a walk. People…the main event is happening here! No one seemed to care. It was an incredible sight. The capacity crowd was not feeling the show in the least bit. It almost didn’t even seem like reality. I guess these things sometimes happen. It was a just bad performance, what can we say.
The aftermath:
Although we were there to see a rock concert and write a review, we too, had fallen into the mood that many of the other fans were in. We decided to leave while they were still playing. It was just that bad. We couldn’t listen anymore. We made our way to the parking lot, as we witnessed most fans walking to their vehicles, with their heads down. Yes..the show was a total flop!”
Conclusion:
Njrockstar.com was really siked about going to this show. We would get to hear all the STP hits from back in the day. Remember, this was a reunion tour, no new material. With the combination of threatening weather, less than popular opening bands, and the extremely disappointing performance of a once great rock band, the end result was a total flopped concert event . Stone Temple Pilots sucked royally but at least it was a day out with the boys right?
_ NJrockstar Management