SHOW REVIEW: STP at Mohegan Sun 7/17/09

Well kids...it's been a long week. I apologize for not having this up sooner. I know it was only 5 days ago, but it seems like a long time ago already... so hear we go.

THE OPENING ACT: The Meat Puppets
Okay, I was very excited last week (you can check in my last blog post) when I heard that the Meat Puppets were opening for Stone Temple Pilots. So excited in fact that I searched through a bunch of my old CD's to find the song "Backwater" on a mix CD...I was unsuccessful. That must be one of the many lost "O's Mixes" (their very low in value if you happen to find one...so feel free to return to owner. You might want to hold onto it though in case I ever become famous. Then people will be like, "Ohhh...this is what influenced O"...see how I used "O" twice there? tricky!).

My excitement, mixed with some good Italian food (gnocchi's...a personal fav), some fantastic company (my oldest friend), and a few beers (a few being 6)...had me ready to rock out to some Meat Puppets. As we took the escalator down to the floor section (we had to show our tickets twice...kind of a big deal) my ears began to tingle as I heard the song "Backwater" being played. I was a little confused as to why they would play this song in the middle of their show. If I had known then the crap that would spew out of their instruments I would have bought ear plugs before the show (ear plugs are for losers...if you wear them to a concert you're sitting too close for your comfort...and you're a loser...hands down. The guy in front of me wore them. He was a loser).

Anyway, they played a couple decent songs before their last two songs. At this point I was ranking them under the category "Not Bad, Not Good". However...the last two songs put them off my radar for good. It was the first song (which on the setlist on the STP fan club website is listed as ???) that made the audience begin to turn. It was just them making dumb noises with their instruments. When I say noise, I MEAN noise. Like there was no beat to be heard behind the awful squealing of an out of tune guitar. The bassist was just flailing his fingers up and down the fret in no particular fashion. This song was followed by audience members behind us beginning a "You Suck" chant...in all its WWE glory.

Finally, what put the crowd out of its misery was their finale...a sped up version of Nirvana's "Lake of Fire". When I say sped up I mean literally take a vinyl of Nirvana's version of the song, put it under the needle, and gradually spin it faster and faster until all you hear nothing because blood has filled your eardrums. I understand they were an influence to Nirvana, but Cobain knew how to make music...not noise. I was so relieved when they left the stage. I have nothing to say about them except if they're ever opening for one of your favorite bands, grab a few more beers instead of wasting your time.


THE MAIN EVENT: Stone Temple Pilots
After a 45 minute intermission the arena filled up to capacity. Which is awesome because the Mohegan Sun Arena doesn't hold that many people. It is a very intimate arena...almost like a theater with concrete floors. Take a large arena you know and cut it down to the floor and a lower and upper deck seating and that's about it. Anyway...on with the show.

Scott, Eric, Dean, and Rob take the stage and the crowd goes nuts! Scott is wearing sunglasses, which I take as a good sign because this means he's probably just really stoned...instead of his old heroin days. It seems like he has turned a page in his career and pulled back from the hardcore drugs, but then again, I've thought that a few times before.

They immediately start off their show with some of their oldest tunes off of their first album Core. "Silvergun Superman" kicks off the show, followed by one of my personal favorites "Wicked Garden".

Then they switch over to Purple and get the crowd fired up with a familiar tune "Vasoline" and then move onto "Lounge Fly" and "Army Ants". They stop for a brief second after this and honestly I have never heard a crowd so loud in my entire life. I've been to a lot of loud arena shows and sat close for shows like moe., Coheed and Cambria, and My Morning Jacket, but I have never heard a crowd as deafening as the one at STP. My friend who's seen them dozens of times even stated that Mohegan had one of the best crowds he's ever heard.

Anyway...on with the show. It's time to break out the Thank You album...the Greatest Hits. Their next ten songs were off the charts...the songs every fan of STP would know and love...check this out...

"Big Empty"
"Crackerman"
"Sour Girl"
"Creep"
"Seven Caged Tigers"
"Plush"
"Interstate Love Song"
"Down"
"Sex Type Thing"
"Sin"


[A personal favorite..."Big Empty"]


...then they finished up with "Unglued" and left the stage. CLEARLY they were not over. The chants of "S-T-P...S-T-P" began and finally they took the stage. Scott had a megaphone in his hand which meant only one thing...their encore was going to start with "Dead and Bloated". I went friggin nuts at this point because I had been waiting for this song...it's a great jam. There is nothing like a song that starts with distorted megaphone vocals. "I am spinnin like a rose that somebody gave me on my birthday death bed..."


YEAHHHHH! The crowd went nuts.

So before they started the encore some dude next to me asked what they were going to play and I nailed it on the head guessing "Dead and Bloated". When he asked me what the second encore was going to be I was completely confident...I guessed "Trippin On a Hole in a Paper Heart"...I was right. My buddy and I went nuts...as did the rest of the crowd. They finished the concert and of all things...they stood at the front of the stage arms around each other and took a bow in appreciation. Showmanship...that's what that is kids...learn from the legends.

Amazing show. Probably one of my favorite arena shows of all time (MMJ's New Years set last year at MSG will be hard to top, but it's REALLY close). Scott Weiland's vocals were fantastic (my buddy said the best he's ever heard him...which SAYS A LOT!). It's like he ditched the drugs and his voice came back to him. I was most impressed with guitarist Dean DeLeo. His lick's were perfect, his solo's were unique, but the coolest thing was the amazing riffs that he would play fooling around in between songs. All in all, an incredible night. It just got better after the show, but that's a whole different story altogether...

STP IS A MUST SEE! GO SEE THEM NOW! GOOOOOOO!