STP

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

Alive In The Windy City

DVD

Eagle Vision Entertainment

1 out of 10

I have never been a big Stone Temple Pilots Fan. Their first album that came out, Core, had couple of good songs on it but after that they turned into a pop rock act it seemed to me.

Imagine my shock when I received a DVD in the mail of a 2010 concert of theirs. Who knew they were still around?

The press release states that Alive In The Windy City is the first official authorized by the band for commercial video release. So I don’t know if a previous label screwed them over and released a concert video in the past, or if this just happens to be the first time anyone wanted a live DVD from STP.

Judging by the quality of Scott Weiland’s singing I’m assuming that whoever thought this endeavor was a good idea, has since rethought the idea, and is now rethinking their career path and choices.

The show kicks off with Vasoline. It is the first song of the show. The show opens and Vasoline is playing. Is that clear to you? We are on the first song of the set and Scott‘s voice is crap. Almost painful. The band is fine, and if I cared about their music I might have enjoyed their playing more. But alas, I don’t, and couldn’t.

Just watching Scott Weiland strut around the stage like a chicken annoyed the shit out of me.

All of the big STP ‘hits’ are here. Vasoline, Wicked Garden, Big Empty, Sour Girl, Creep, Plush, Interstate Love Song, Sex Type Thing… you get the idea. Sour Girl was atrocious. It just sounded like a train wreck to me. And every song starts off with the drummer counting out the song, a shot from behind him as he is doing it. It’s fucking annoying. Creep should never be performed live. It sounds like a dirge that should only be played during failed abortions. Absolutely no life in the song, the band, or the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, the mix on the crowd noise has got to be canned. It can’t be from the crowd in that venue for that show. The venue is too small to have a crowd noise sounding like 15,000 people yelling at once. The artwork exclaims the show is sold out. Hell the Riviera Theater only holds 2,500 people. It had better be sold out if you are going to film it. And there’s no way that 2,500 people sound like 15,000.

So, the show lasts 92 minutes. I lasted 15 minutes. There were interviews at the end too, but I’d rather slam my dick on broken glass than listen to Scott Weiland talk about… well… anything.

I gave the DVD a 1 out of 10 because it was at least mixed well. I mean imagine trying to make a turd sound good. How do you do that? Well whoever mixed this DVD did just that. Maybe they should have gotten more than 1 for that magic trick; however I don’t know the dude’s name and don’t want to give the band too much credit here.

Enjoy at your risk, or don’t. You’ll thank me later.

Stone Temple Pilots-S/T

Atlantic Records

Rating: 10 out of 10

Upon the release of “Core” in 1992, I, like most of the rest of the world, instantly was a Stone Temple Pilots fan; needless to say, I was quite disappointed when the quartet broke up in 2003 (or as guitarist Dean DeLeo once put it “took a respite”). I was elated to see them back together and touring in 2009, and hungry for a new album to sink my teeth into. After nine years, and a couple of stints in rehab, the newly reunited STP is back in a big way. The new self-titled offering from the quartet is easily the best since 1996′s “Tiny Music…”, and quite possibly their best effort to date.

The album gets things going with “Between the Lines”, an ode to Scott Weiland’s ex-wife, and it’s just a warm-up for what is about to be unleashed unto your eardrums. This album is full of classic rock influence from some of the greatest of all-time. This stylistic influence rears it’s head early on, in Track #3 “Huckleberry Crumble”, a song that easily could’ve been a long lost “B-side” from Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic”. The artistic influence continues to shine in “Dare if you Dare”, which mixes a Beatles type sound with the Mott the Hoople classic “All the Young Dudes”. Perhaps the most commonly recurring influence on the album, however, is David Bowie (who wrote “All the Young Dudes”). We hear this first on the psuedo-British “Cinnamon”, which sounds like it’s being done by an Oasis/Bowie supergroup. But the flashback hits it’s climax with the Bowie inspired “First Kiss on Mars”; when I first heard this track I had to check the liner notes, because I swore David Bowie was making a guest appearance.

Despite all of the classic rock influences, STP still manage to give us a couple of killer classic STP songs, in “Fast as I Can” , “Bagman”, and “Hazy Daze”, which are all undoubtedly inspired by Weiland’s battle with addiction. This album is a must have, and I expect to see you all lining up at your local record store (for your sake) when the album is released this Tuesday (May 25th). They could throw ten more shitty songs on this album, and it would still be worth every penny. Very highly recommended. One of this years best.