Concert Review: Stone Temple Pilots Tear the Borgata Down

This Saturday, I ventured down to Atlantic City in the morning at about 9:30AM with my buddy Ryan. Having returned back on the bus at around 4AM from Atlantic City the night before, I woke up at 8:30AM, I was running on coffee, half a tank of gas, and pure adrenaline. The first stop of the day would be the Tropicana for a noon show of "The Dark Knight" in Imax, my third time overall seeing it, second time in Imax. This film keeps getting better and better every time I see it, and in Imax, it's a totally different beast of a movie.

Then, it was over to the Borgata, where gods of rock awaited. When getting our tickets, we found out at the last minute, we were also able to get our hands on VIP bracelets, which meant free drinks throughout the whole concert. Ryan's grandfather is the Hugh Hefner of the Borgata, and hooked it up to the highest possible degree going into the show. We ate great food, drank great drinks, and had great seats to see what we were hoping would be a great show. The next phase would be determined by the band, Stone Temple Pilots, and what kind of performance they would put on this evening. In actively looking at their message board over the past month or so as their tour has marched cross country, I realized the casino venue was very fitting since this would be a crap shoot.

We got to the Borgata Event Center at about 8:45 and the opening act was performing; The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and took our spots right in front of the stage. Immediately, there was cause for concern as it seemed the bass was turned up wayyyyy too loud; it felt like my ears would be shot before STP even came out. Looking at their typical "opening act sound setup," which consisted of microphones duct taped to their amps to feed through to the house speakers, I was confident STP's crew would have it figured out once these loud rejects finally listened to the chanting of "We want STP!" and got off the stage.

At about 9:30, I peered in between the speakers to catch a glimpse of lead singer Scott Weiland doing some sort of pre-entrance shimmy backstage and donning a red pimp hat. The group then came out on stage to a loud reception, about as loud as a crowd of 3,000 can get, which was pretty damn loud. Dean DeLeo then opened up with the eerie, yet familiar slide guitar of "Big Empty," and once Scott started singing, the night really kicked off. Now, I've heard throughout the tour that Weiland has at times been near horrendous and incoherent at shows, but this was not the case last night. His voice was spot on, with every phase of the group's career they tackled from the exaggerated howling from their debut album "Core," to his high pitched melodies from "Tiny Music..." and the mixture of both on their last 2 albums, "No. 4" and "Shangri La Dee Da." They tour through the set with all their hits and even some obscure ones, in particular "Silver Gun Superman," a personal favorite of mine.

Bassist Robert DeLeo (Dean's brother), relished the crowd's reaction and strutted around the stage throughout the night and really fed off the energy from the audience (while also managing to bear a striking resemblance to Bruce Campbell). Weiland soaked it up, doing his signature slithery shimmy around the stage all night, with the swagger of Mick Jagger. Eric Kretz's thunderous drum sound that explodes on their albums was still there, even nearly 15 years after they recorded many of their songs. The DeLeo brothers also recognized the Jersey crowd, shouting out their hometown of Point Pleasant, NJ and past the mid point of the show, Robert told the crowd emphatically, that this was one of the best shows they've done on the whole tour. I'd have to agree there, because in what I heard from the best of the best things people have been saying about this tour so far, the group still managed to far surpass my expectations.

I've been to many concerts and seen many spectacular things occur on a musical stage in my lifetime. I saw U2 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia joined onstage with Bruce Springsteen in 2005. I saw Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes rip through a set of Led Zeppelin tunes. I was among 100,000 people to see Dave Matthews Band play 3 free hours in Central Park, and saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers joined by Snoop Dogg for a killer version of "Nothing But a G Thang." I've also seen Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, The Strokes, Coldplay, and the Police; and based on all of these experiences, the Stone Temple Pilots put on one of the greatest live shows I have ever seen. They sounded as great as they do on their records while adding extra dynamics and explosive showmanship to their performance.

Shows like the one I saw last night leave me to think that there is still a place for this group and an energy to drive them to bigger heights. The only thing we can hope for now, is for this resurrection of Stone Temple Pilots to endure so we can see what other music they have in store for us, and that they continue to kill crowds with their live shows. It's hard to imagine that they ever went away for over 5 years. The Borgata only opened in 2003 and when gambling there's a famous saying that the house always wins, but last night the Stone Temple Pilots tore the house down.

Here are some of the pictures I took during the show, and the setlist.

SETLIST:
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 And Bloated

Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart

*Random observations from the show:

1. Robert DeLeo looks like Bruce Campbell

2. Dean DeLeo's guitar of choice is any kind of Gibson Les Paul. He had a different one strapped on for about 75% of the show. You will never hear me complain about that since it's the guitar of choice for some of my favorite ax men in history such as: Jimmy Page, Duane Allman, and Slash.

3. Throughout the show every member of the band got rid of at least one part of their outfit, with the exception of Dean. Scott started out in a full vest, tie/scarves, red pimp hat, necklaces, and before the end of the show, he was in just t-shirt and jeans. Robert had a full suit on with aviator shades (resembling one of Joe Pesci's henchmen in "Casino") and lost his jacket a few songs in, Eric was going buck wild on the drums (starting the show with "Big Empty" will do that) and ditched his shirt a couple songs in.

4. Dean was wearing black Uggs that matched his black shirt/bell bottoms, and he still looked like a badass mofo (reminiscent of Keith Richards circa "Exile on Main Street")

5. I knew Scott was sober when: during the encore, he wore a plain white t-shirt that had "I am an American" written on it in marker. He went on to say he was patriotic and supported every single one of our troops fighting for us overseas. He said he may not agree with certain policies and why we are over there, but he still has and will continue to support our troops. He said we should vote, he wouldn't tell us who to vote for, and that it was important to recognize the difference between policies/politics and patriotism.

6. Scott briefly talked about two different types of fans, the ones who know the popular songs played on the radio, and the ones that have all the albums, and know all the songs. He then introduced a song he said that both those types of fans would like, he said, "This is called Lunch." They then played "Plush." Hilariously classic, also one of the highlights of the show.

7. Robert DeLeo handles backing vocals astoundingly, especially on songs like "Creep," "Big Empty," and "Interstate Love Song." Weiland handled all the backup vocals on their albums, overdubbing them onto songs, but in concert you'd think DeLeo was doing them all along.

8. Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, and Eric Kretz are one of the most dynamic rhythm sections in rock n' roll. Scott Weiland solely sings, and the only instrument he uses is the megaphone. As a 3 piece backing band, they pulled off a complete and tremendous musical sound, that filled the show, sounding almost like a 5 piece at times.