ITS LIKE SOMEONE WAS LISTENING TO ME!!! They completely ignored SLDD on Monday in Brooklyn, and even though the Asbury show rocked, as they started in with the same exact set from Monday I just lowered expectations for anything different (as any other time in the past couple years I've seen em back to back it's pretty much been the exact same set each of the nights), but once Dean started strumming the beginning of Bi-Polar Bear I started jumping like crazy and had the biggest smile on my face.
I thought the show in Asbury Park was a little better than the night before (aside from the technical difficulties). It's hard to reason why exactly, could just be in my mind because a deep track off SLDD was included. I dunno. But just like the night before, the whole band seemed on fire. Scott's definitely a bit more active on stage than when they first reunited. He also definitely looks more fit. I was looking over some of my photos and even thought to myself that he looks in better shape. Maybe a little more weight and bulk (who knows, but this comment is taking a creepy turn so back to reviewing). The crowd was really into the show too.
As for the DeLeo's, what Rob mentioned was that the brothers first played at the Stone Pony in '81 when they were still basically learning to play (with STP they've played there a handful of times, if my memory's correct), and that it's crazy how things have come full circle.
On stage, they all seemed to be clicking really well. Rob was even traveling across stage a little more than I usually remember. With the technical difficulties going on, at first it was so sporadic that I thought Dean was just kind of mixing things up a bit. But then by the middle of 'Down' you could tell he was really just ticked. To me I thought there was something up with his effects pedals because you could hear him playing but it just either didn't have any Reverb/Delay/Distortion going on and suddenly it would come through on the next notes, but then they kept messing with the guitar itself. It was a bummer because they obviously had to cut songs out, and between a couple songs there were a couple of minutes where there was nothing going on. The first time it happened, I saw Dean motion to Scott that he needed a minute, so I figured Scott was going to stall for a bit or improvise, but instead the band just kind of stopped and stared at Dean until he was ready. The third time it happened, Rob finally started to just jam on the Bass and then Eric & Scott joined in for a little improv. In my heart of hearts I was hoping Dean would just come out with an Acoustic Guitar, plug it straight in and they'd do a couple slow songs while the techs tried to figure out the issues. But no such luck, the band jumped into STT, hit the encore break, and got right into Trippin.
In response to robschmidt......Generally each venue has a curfew. Some are strict with early curfews (especially if it's a summerstage outdoors in a community) some manage to get later curfews for their venues, but basically the rule of thumb is that a band can play later if they want to but they'll have to pay up a nice chunk of $$$ for the later they run. You start getting into labor and union issues at that point, not to mention city fines as well. When you think about it, Axl Rose has probably thrown away so much money in his career just to keep a reputation of "The show will start when I'm good and ready" Not that STP wouldn't be willing to stretch the curfew a bit to make up for the lost songs, but if it truly was an issue with the guitar then they'd have to re-tune other guitars to replace the one that went down or fill in other songs to accomodate his guitars available. As much as I love them, I don't really know how much the band is able to go off-book from the songs/sets they rehearse/grow accustomed to without it being just goofing around or jamming. Whether it's remembering all lyrics, or exactly how to play note for note, or just a matter of them setting a standard for themselves that if they're not properly prepared they're not going to reach for it, but in all the times I've seen them I can't really ever recall a moment where it seemed they were plugging songs on the fly or going of course (other than just taking a song out).
Great friggin night though. Great 2 nights back-to-back. Great that I don't have to wait another 6 months for them to come around again (3rd row at NJPAC in September)!!!!
