So this year’s Twilight Concert Series is shaping up to be absolutely buck wild.  The Knux and the Roots played tonight, and all I have to say is that you need to see the Roots now.  Like, right now. Check out this picture on the right.  See that sousaphone?  That’s not a gimmick.  That’s genuine low end.  The show was incredibly entertaining, mad mic skills, a classic hip hop medley (featuring “Just a Friend”, “Nothin’ But a ‘G’ Thang”, “This is Why I’m Hot,” and a lot more), and an incredible jam on Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” that flowed into Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” into a roaring drum solo by ?uestlove, after which everybody left the stage, then came back for another verse of “Masters.”  The encore jam was likewise amazing, Captain Kirk Douglas laying down some vicious guitar, Owen Biddle putting down some rumbling bass, Black Thought spouting at the speed of sound.  Incredible.  I had to write this while I’m still riding it.  Seriously people.

p.s. New Orleans rappers The Knux were good, too.  But The Roots blew me away.

How did I almost forget that one? On Monday I went to the State Theater in St. Pete and saw Gogol and the crew. Or maybe they ARE the crew…dunno. A lot of the time there was 9 people on stage in a theater was meant for punk music and moshing. My friend Jason’s first show at that venue, back in the day, was Bouncing Souls.

Gogol put on a great show, for sure. We almost didn’t get in, because they ran out of tickets, and then were accepting cash for no ticket, so I had to run across the street in a halter top that was not meant for boobies jiggling. I had a line of punkrockers/retro/50’s dressed people looking at me. Anyways, found an ATM. Got in. Sweet. The beer was pretty cheap, too, only 3 bucks for a Miller Lite. They took their sweet ass time coming on though. 45 minutes between the openers and Gogol. My buzz was gone.

Do I have the setlist? Hell no. No idea what they played. I can tell you that I WORE PURPLE, and I got that whole song on video….not on my camera. They played Alcohol, returning from their break as an encore. And, my friends decided to go out back and try meet them, and they did! Me and the boyfriend hit the road. I’m not much for trying to meet bands and such, I never know what to say…”Hey man, ….how’s….work?”

Cool, eh? Lots of sweat, wine, and people on stage. Kickin’ show. can’t wait to see them again.

So I had admitted earlier that I felt a fair amount of trepidation regarding last night’s Stone Temple Pilots show.  I’d read bad things,  I kind of floundered to come up with an ideal setlist, and, in doing so, I came to terms with how I really feel about Stone Temple Pilots.  But in the end I think these things just served to keep my expectations in check, which turned out really well for me.
I already expected them to open with “Big Empty,” having read more than one account of things happening this way, and I was really okay with that.  I thought it was a good way to ease into the show, and Dean’s guitar on that one is well highlighted.  “Wicked Garden” was next, and the first of eight (8) songs from .  Eight.  Including two that I didn’t even recognize (I’ll post a complete setlist once I figure out what they were).  I find this notably odd, especially when compared with the Smashing Pumpkins only playing one song that was even from the Gish era (Of course the Pumpkins had something to promote, STP were just there to play and try to be famous again).
Scott didn’t seem to be under the influence of anything, but I’m a horrible judge.  I just figure he always minces about like that, palm out, twisting in his Beatle boots.  If he muddled the words to anything, it was to songs I don’t know the words to, either (and likely while I was trying to sing along to said songs).  His voice sounded okay, a little nasal on “Big Bang Baby” but that’s his choice.  It was pretty nice, actually, to hear some of those early songs sung with the more distinct voice Scott cultivated later on.  I’d also read complaints of Scott rambling on between songs, and he was fairly talkative early on, mentioning how they didn’t usually make it through SLC when they were touring before, but beyond that not much.  Nothing distracting.
Overall it was a good show.  Worth my $10 discount ticket.  Probably not worth full price, but that’s me.  The breakdown of albums represented was a little telling: 8 from Core (9 if you count playing “Wet My Bed” over the PA as they took a curtain call), 4 from Purple, 3 from Tiny Music…, 2 from No. 4, and 2 from Shangri-la Dee Da, and only one from last Friday’s list (”Too Cool Queenie,” it kind of made my night).  It appears we did it to ourselves, as the STP website has a feature that invites you to build a setlist.  It’s the right way to do a tour like this, and I really wish I’d taken some initiative with that, but alas.  Looks like Vegas on Saturday is going to have a much better set.  I approve.

I wasn’t planning on seeing Stone Temple Pilots on their reunion tour. I saw the Smashing Pumpkins last September, Meat Puppets & Built to Spill in March, and my roomate just saw the Breeders a couple weeks ago, so I figured we had our reunions shows taken care of. I mean, I love STP, they were my first proper alt rock band, I own all their albums (though Core was just taped from my friend’s copy, I’m fine with that, though), but I’ve never considered them a live band. Still, when I was presented with a chance to buy tickets for $10 a piece, I couldn’t pass that up at all.

And then it hit me that I never really thought about STP in a live setting. I know they’ve been on the Family Values Tour (though I always cringe a bit when I’m reminded of Scott Weiland’s brief association with Fred Durst). I’ve seen pictures of Scott Weiland dressed flamboyantly and brandishing a megaphone on stage. I just never stopped and pondered how great “Interstate Love Song” must be live. It hit me today that I don’t know what song to expect, or even what I really want to hear. The radio spot promoting the show uses “Dead & Bloated”, “Wicked Garden”, “Creep”, “Sex Type Thing”, “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”, “Vaseline”, and “Interstate Love Song” but I can’t imagine the show being so Core-centric. What with the band growing and maturing beyond their pretty straighforward and oft-bland first album. I see STP as having peaked at Tiny Music… and the slumped until the break up, but still ending as a much better band than they started as. Still, the only post-Purple song on the ad is the STP song from Guitar Hero II. But then you really shouldn’t take those spots too seriously.

So I decided to put my mind to it and present you with a bunch of songs I want to hear at Tuesday’s show. I wanted to do this with the Pumpkins show, but those would have been total longshots given the depth of the Pumpkins’ catalog. STP only had five albums, and they aren’t promoting new material and they aren’t known for prolific B-sides, so I feel good about this. My biggest trial coming up with this list is trying not to simply put up all thirteen tracks from Tiny Music… I mean all of ‘em, too, even the simple instrumental segues “Press Play” and “Daisy.”

Anyhow, here are some STP songs I’d love to hear (except “Christmas Time is Here”, but it was too cool to pass up). But doing a little research before the show, looks like I’m in to be disappointed. But hey! Artie Fufkin promised that if (when) Weiland gets put back into rehab and has to cancel the concert, then we’re having a Stone Temple Pilots Singalong at his house.

 Stone Temple Pilots - Adhesive [5:35m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Art School Girlfriend [3:35m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Christmas Time is Here (live) [3:33m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Ride the Cliché: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Too Cool Queenie [2:48m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Kitchenware & Candybars/The Second Album [8:06m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Pop's Love Suicide: Play in Popup | Download
 Stone Temple Pilots - Meat Plow [3:37m]: Play in Popup | Download

All pictures courtesy of the kickin’ Lendi.

To view bigger, and assuming you’re using Firefox, because why the hell wouldn’t you be, right click on the images and click “View Image”.

 Radiohead - Palo Alto [3:42m]: Play in Popup | Download

Well, I saw Radiohead on Tuesday night. I’m not sure exactly how exciting this is, because I have no ticket left over (besides an e-ticket), no good pictures and not very good video. I’m waiting on some better quality stuff from a friend who got up to the seventh row. We actually sat in the lawn, which is all the way in the back. Where you can drink, smoke, and get to the loo easily, so it was worth it.

The show was awesome. Apparently the boys had requested that the two side video screens toRadiohead not be used, but they used their own that were on stage behind them. So you could see Thom’s crazy eye and everything. (I don’t know if this important to you, but his eye was very important to the friend I went with).

I feel like seating, obviously, is super important. Especially at a show like this. Radiohead had electric curtains of some kind, that lit up with all sorts of colors and strange patterns. Which was awesome, but I’m sure it would have been way more awesome and trippy if it was happening like 20 feet away from my face.

So the high energy was all up front, and the chill was all in my lap, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the show. What was also awesome about chilling in the lawn was that for certain songs, if I chose, I could just lay back on the blanket and stare at the stars while Thom Yorke and the boys played me their music. Pretty fucking sweet.

They opened with ‘All I Need’. Do I have a setlist? No. I can tell you they played Weird Fishes, Reckoner, Fake Plastic Trees, Bodysnatchers, House of Cards, and Videtape. I think they played Nude. They played Idioteque. I know they didn’t play much from OK Computer, because a different friend was a little disappointed by that. But what you gonna do? I have special requests, too. Like In Limbo. Love that song.

It was a good, chill show. I have seen Radiohead. CHECK.

Enjoy some short, bad-quality video.

 Radiohead - Reckoner [4:50m]: Play in Popup | Download