Scott Weiland at The House of Blues Cleveland

I had the opportunity to attend last night’s Scott Weiland show at the House of Blues in Cleveland.  The show was billed as Scott playing the first two Stone Temple Pilots albums in their entirety.  I’m a huge STP fan so I jumped at the chance to see the former front man perform what I consider to be his best work.

NOTE: For those of you that don’t know, Weiland was recently dismissed as the band’s lead singer after 20 years.

As I said before, the show was billed as STP’s first two albums (Core and Purple) in their entirety.  Unfortunately, what we got was neither, though Weiland did put together a 17 song show… once he got on stage.  See, Mr. Weiland decided to come on stage about 45 minutes late and appeared (at least from where I was sitting) to be completely bombed out of his mind.  There’s a certain level of brilliance that seems to come from drug & alcohol use amongst singers, but sadly the Cleveland crowd didn’t get any of that last night.

The band sounded good and there were flashes of that old brilliance from Weiland, but for the overwhelming majority of the time it was a sad state of affairs.  A whole SLEW of folks walked out before the show was over.  Weiland was slurring and forgetting words on a regular basis and had pitch problems the likes of first-week American Idol hopefuls.  I can’t even carry a tune in the shower, so if I thought it was bad that should tell you something.

At one point, Weiland told a story about “The Drive” and “The Fumble” to the hometown crowd which as Clevelanders we’re all too familiar with.  Unfortunately, Scott “misremembered” these stories as he attributed them to Jacob’s Field (The former name for Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians for those not in the know.)

Sadly, the excitement of getting to hear and see the former glory that was Stone Temple Pilots wore off pretty quickly.  The folks that I was with were giving odds of Weiland falling off stage.  I said 20:1… others said as high as 3:1.  There were discussions about bad karaoke and as I said before folks were heading for the doors WAY before the show was over.

The Core and Purple advertised set list turned into a jumble of cover tunes, some new Weiland stuff and a bunch of STP stuff:

• Crackerman 
• Wicked Garden
• Paralysis
• Naked Sunday
• Creep
• The Jean Genie (David Bowie)
• Kitchenware & Candybars
• Where The River Goes
• Mountain Song (Jane’s Addiction)
• Big Empty
• Can’t Stand Me Now (The Libertines)
• Still Remains
• Interstate Love Song
• Vasoline
• Roadhouse Blues (The Doors)
• Missing Cleveland
• Unglued

As I’m writing this review I’m realizing that it’s pretty negative.  Honestly its cause I was super disappointed.  As I said, STP is one of my favorite bands and to be let down like this was kind of a bummer.  In doing a quick Googling I see that I’m not alone in my thoughts:

• Cleveland.com – Scott Weiland’s homecoming is anything but a good one; fired STP frontman, raised in Chagrin Falls, falters at HOB stop (review)
• Cleveland Scene – Concert Review: Scott Weiland at House of Blues
• Cleveland Leader – Concert Review: Scott Weiland Plays Cleveland’s House Of Blues

Again, I can’t say it was a good show by any stretch of the imagination.  I was REALLY hoping to hear Plush (my favorite STP tune) and he left it out completely.  That said it was awesome to hear some live Stone Temple Pilots and I’m glad I went.