^^ down- Sorry, I didn't see your post before I left. I would've loved to meet up with you and Andrew, sorry I missed it.
I hope you guys had a great time.
I'm pretty sure the set was the same as the LA and OK shows: Vasoline; Crackerman; Wicked Garden; Hollywood Bitch; Between the Lines; Hickory Dichotomy; Big Empty; Sour Girl; Creep; Plush; Interstate Love Song; Bagman; Huckleberry Crumble; Sex Type Thing; Dead and Bloated; Lounge Fly; Piece of Pie; Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart.
The band didn't go on until 10:20 (about an hour after the opener finished). At one point around 10:00, I saw Rob peek out from backstage, shrug a little, and go back. I got worried at that point. Not long after that, the crowd went sour. The crowd had been chanting "STP, STP!" for a while, and the long wait was finally pissing them off. The crowd started booing and then started chanting "What the F*ck?!, What the F*ck?!". I thought we were going to have another 2008 New Jersey incident. Once STP came out, the crowd seemed to forgive them. I noticed Scott and Dean immediately hugged on stage. I figured Scott wouldn't come on stage and that resulted in him and Dean having a spat (but that's pure speculation on my part). Scott apologized to the crowd a couple of songs into the set.
Once the show got going, the band performed like no incident ever happened, the on-stage chemistry seemed fine. The guys sounded good, however I thought Weiland was drunk and sounded a little sloppy at times. Overall, he still had it together and put on a great show. The only song that got completely butchered was LoungeFly. I guess the crew didn't hook up Rob's acoustic-stand guitar properly, and it didn't work when they came to that part right before the solo. They stopped the song momentarily to try and fix it, but eventually went on without it. After that, Scott didn't come in on the final chorus at the right time and the rest of the song was completely lost. This was my 7th time seeing STP live since '94- I can't say it was the best performance I've seen them put on, but not the worst either. Maybe I've just gotten overly critical after seeing so many of their shows, it's tough to say..
All of the new songs sounded great, and Scott was pretty chatty between songs. The highlight of the show was by far Vegas Crackerman taking the stage to kick off Dead and Bloated. As jealous as I am, you totally deserved that honor, dude. You've trekked to a lot of shows! What a classy move by STP. Seriously, that would be an absolute dream come true. It's great the band recognized one of it's most devoted fans. VC took the megaphone and nailed the opener. I can't even fathom how incredible and surreal that experience must have been.
VC- you are the envy of everyone on this board. Way to go, man!!
