STP concert review

STP is the band behind SD that I've seen most, with SD only leading by 1 concert. I saw them at the PNC Bank Arts center, a month to the day after seeing the CoM. It did bring back a lot of happy memories to be back at the PNC, although the weather was night and day. CoM was like 96 with high humidity and Sunday was 77 with low humidity.

So the opening band was Tab the Band. They were decent, but the music was so overly loud, you couldn't really hear the lyrics. The lead singer was really cool, talking about each of the songs, and all 4 of them looked extremely young. Like the guitarist looked like a girl he was so young and the drummer looked like a very young, but tall Steve Zahn. Oh and the singer could have passed for Jack Black. Catchy riffs but a very southern rock sound to them mixed with a bit of Primus, and not what I would have put with a band like STP.

After that was Cage the Elephant. Very new band, but getting some decent airtime on Sirius. Most notably, they did the theme song to the "Borderlands" video game - aint no rest for the wicked. Matt has the CD and the songs are decent. The actual live performance left something to be desired. The lead singer was either wasted or stoned out of his mind, or both, and was all over the place. He couldn't stand still, was stumbling everywhere, but you know what. He never missed a beat or word, he never fell down even when he was climbing on speakers. He did choke himself with the mic wire when he kept jumping out into the crowd to sing and dance with them. So I think the jury is still out of them. Maybe they are just a band that's great on CD but sucky live.

Then STP came out (on time for once!!). If you've never seen them live, they CAN put on a show! (Plus the fact that I think Weiland is sexy helps :wink: ). I expected them to do more songs off their new album but it started with Crackerman and basically went through every single ending with Trippin on a hole for 2 full hours. There were 3 new songs scattered in there including one they haven't released yet. However, as much as I love their songs, the best part of the concert was the jamming they did in between songs. Weiland would talk a bit, but mostly it was the band doing some blues pieces before heading into the next single, which as a musician, I totally dug. And it was homecoming for the DeLeo brothers which was cool, and I also think they are some really underrated musicians. Watching them jam and seeing how technically sound they were really impressed me.

All through out, I kept trying to compare the bands. They are, in my mind, the best 2 live bands (hence I keep seeing them over and over), and it's hard to decide who puts on the better show, although that's not a slight to either band. The actual concert couldn't compare to CoM, as that just f'n rocked, but I can recommend seeing STP live if you haven't.