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They’re not standing around the watercooler, but Cheryl Sadler, Mark Meszoros, Mark Podolski and Nicole Franz are talking about what they’ve been watching, listening to and playing during their free time.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

STP: Live in Cleveland

By Nick Carrabine
NCarrabine@News-Herald.com


I can’t think of too many better feelings than someone calling you two hours before a concert that you’ve wanted to go to for the past four months and offering you free tickets.

Imagine how I felt pulling into the Wal-mart parking lot Sunday around 5 p.m. when I received a call from my friend telling me she had won six free tickets to see Stone Temple Pilots, who are among one of my all-time favorite bands.

I was going to buy tickets to the STP show back in May, but tickets were ridiculously overpriced and at the time, I had a prior obligation that would have made it difficult to go to the show.

I counted my losses a long time ago but when a second chance arose, I obviously couldn’t pass it up as I haven’t seen STP live since October of 2001 back when lead singer Scott Weiland was still on drugs, the band was in a down spiral and they were coming off their worst release of their career (Shangri-La Dee Da).

The band members of STP, now entering their mid-40s and 50s, took the Tower City Amphitheater stage at 9 p.m. Weiland was armed with his megaphone that he is famous for using during much of the set as he awkwardly danced across the stage throughout most of the night.

The band mostly played hits from Core, Purple and their new Self-Titled album. Thankfully, they completely abandoned every single song off Shangri-La Dee Da.

My only complaint, as with most shows, is that the set was far too short, especially for a band that is so established with an 18-year successful career.

They only played 19 songs over a two-hour set and it’s mind-boggling why they didn’t play “Creep,” one of their biggest hits and one of my favorite songs of all-time. They also only played a combined three songs off No. 4 and Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, even though those albums garnered several hits each.

But hey, it was free.

And even though they left off some of my favorite songs from the set list, it was still a great show from one of my favorite bands of all-time.

Can’t beat that.

Setlist:
Crackerman (Core)
Wicked Garden (Core)
Vasoline (Purple)
Heaven and Hot Rods (No. 4)
Between The Lines (Self-Titled)
Hickory Dichotomy (Self-Titled)
Still Remains (Purple)
Cinnamon (Self-Titled)
Big Empty (Purple)
Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin cover)
Pretty Penny (Purple)
Silvergun Superman (Purple)
Plush (Core)
Interstate Love Song (Purple)
Huckleberry Crumble (Self-Titled)
Down (No. 4)
Sex Type Thing (Core)

Encore:
Dead And Bloated (Core)
Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart (Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop)



1 Comments:

Anonymous Drew said...

I was there too, I thought the show was pretty good but would've liked to see a few different songs in the set. I hate when bands play cover songs and then leave out songs that you want to hear. I would've liked to hear "Creep," "Tumble in the Rough," "Unglued," "Big Bang Baby," or "Dumb Love" but I can't complain. I agree with you that Shangri-La Dee Da is their weakest album but there are still a few really good songs on it, in my opinion (Dumb Love, Coma, Days of the Week). How'd you like Cage the Elephant?

August 24, 2010 at 2:11 PM 

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