Scott did a strip tease for us

Last night was the Stone Temple Pilots concert. I want to get all the good stuff written down, but bare with me; I've had very few hours of sleep and no coffee due to the 21 day cleanse. I'm surprised I'm functioning as well as I am right now.



The opening act sucked big time. I was positive it was supposed to be Filter, and I was all excited because I was getting two bands I really like for the price of one. Instead we got Jay's Revenge or some crap like that. They started off on a good foot, doing a crazy rendition of Elton John's Benny and the Jets. It went downhill from there. There original stuff was, um, lacking. It was a sorry mix of experimenting with sound a la Pink Floyd (Not knocking Floyd here; I'm a huge fan) and melancholy angst. Kim and I decided that the lead singer was a sorry cross between Billy Corgan and the lead singer of AC/DC. Yeah. He even tried to rock Billy's bald head/black turtleneck/albino look. It didn't work.



STP went on nearly 45 minutes after the openers were done. We thought we were waiting for Filter, and out comes Scott and the gang. The opened with Big Empty, one of my faves, but I'll admit, it wasn't quite there. I can't remember the second song for the life of my now, but the third was Bang Bang Baby off of Tiny Music.... In my opinion, it was a weak choice. I love the song, but it didn't fit.



I was feeling kind of let down from the get-go. I knew I was taking a chance since I know Scott's vocals can be off when he's singing live. He has a hard time staying in key. Add to that that everyone sitting in front of us felt the need to stand, blocking my view of the entire stage, and I was thinking I had made a mistake coming.



And then... they brought out the acoustic guitar. YES! Creep changed everything. The entire band was dead on. The crowd went ballistic. It was fucking fantastic.



I forgot to mention that when Scott first took the stage, he was dressed up in a Mexican blanket poncho, jeans, cowboy boots, a bunch of scarves, a cowboy hat, and glasses. Nearly every inch of his skin was covered. I was seriously hoping he wasn't going to do the entire concert covered up like that. I really wanted to see his face. Little by little, during the song breaks, he would shed a piece of his ensemble. First the poncho, then the sunglasses, then the hat, etc. When he finally took the hat off, I was disappointed because his hair wasn't red; it was bleach blonde and bit long and kind of looked like it had been thinly dreaded or something. It did NOT fit him. So sad.



As the band played, I took a look at the crowd rocking out. We had Mr. Air Drums in front of us, playing every damned song on his air set. Mr. Air Guitar was across the way in section 117. We also had that guy, you know, that guy that sings to Scott and points to him, knowing Scott is singing directly back at him and they're kindred spirits and all. He was sitting diagonally from us. I actually laughed through part of the concert because people are just so serious about their rocking out. Scott included.



Anyway, they played a lot off Core and Purple (or 12 Gracious Melodies, whichever you prefer), which made this girl extremely happy. We got Sex Type Thing, Wicked Garden, Naked Sunday, Piece of Pie, Plush, Vasoline, Lounge Fly, Interstate Love Song, Silvergun Superman, and Big Empty. We got a smattering of songs from Tiny Music... and No. 4, and one poor song off of Shangri-La that NOBODY but me knew (well, that's what it felt like). They also did a new song, so I'm hoping there's a new album in the works.



By the time the encore came around, Scott was shirtless, blazing all those sinewy muscles and tats. Not bad:) They ended the evening with Dead and Bloated, which is how I felt since it was past my bedtime. I didn't make it home until 12:30am, and I got up at 6am. Blah.



So it was a great night, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm sadly too old for this kind of stuff. I'm paying for it today.