I saw some great STP shows, but the only time it seemed like they truly were getting along was the LA show I went to in October 2010. Scott was sober and had just done the at home rehab thing with Bob Forrest. It's the only time I've seen him sober besides seeing him with Velvet Revolver in 2006, and you could tell the band were having a good time. The shows I saw at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008, New Years Even 2008 going on 2009, and the July 2009 club show in LA were all great too though (Hollywood Bowl was best show I've ever been to). The only STP shows I went to that seemed off were June 2010 at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine and September 2012 in Irvine at Epicenter. In June 2010 Scott was just drunk out of his mind, and the September 2012 show just felt boring and uninspired since it was the same stale setlist/no new songs.
Same old setlist at IRVINE? Dude, they played HOLLYWOOD BITCH, MEATPLOW, BLACK AGAIN, and TUMBLE.
http://youtu.be/S6Cr2OMnTvc
They didn't play Black Again. The setlist on setlist.fm is incorrect, I distinctly remember yelling for them to play it since they had been, but they didn't. I'd seen them do Tumble in the Rough before, same venue in 2010 at Weenie Roast. But hey, they played Hollywood Bitch and Meatplow! Give them a fucking medal!
The show was fine, but it just felt really stale, ESPECIALLY compared to when I saw them in LA in October 2010. To be on tour for no reason at all, no new album, just felt a bit off. It was solely for the money, zero effort was put in. I know you like to be positive about STP VegasCrackerman, I did too from 2008-2010, but it just is what it is. I am really glad I got to see them one more time and was at the 2nd to last show, until whenever the next reunion is. Still weird that they'd pose all happy at the end with their kids when they were a day away from their last show with Scott, shows that they must have really played nice/put an act on for the public.
This is what I meant before when we butted head some much, Brett!
It wasn't just the VR reunion stuff.
I think the first gigs from the reunion were pretty cool.. Mostly odd with Scott's behavior, but it was still badass. They had a dark thing about then every time they hit the stage opening with Big Empty and Scott wearing the nicest suits a Rockstar could ever wear. It gave us goosebumps, confusion, shock, and joy; all until about the end of the reunion tour.
The gigs after that were constantly a hit or a miss, and the tour for self titled was just meh, in my opinion.
It's a damn shame that it had to come to this, but Scott has to be pulling some pretty fucked up shit we don't know about. It reminds me of a quote from Duff; although I can't really remember it word by word, but it was something along the lines of something really bad happening with Scott besides his relapse and he wasn't going to put his laundry out there cuz it was too personal to even talk about.
It's pretty unbelievable how he destroyed his chances with STP, and thanks to his incredible talent he managed to climb back on top with members of Guns N Roses who he looked up to back then. You would think he would get a clue of professional responsibility, but nope! Fucks up again! I know he isn't completely at fault, but his track record doesn't help him much in his favor. Suddenly, he managed to get back with STP... And here we are now; unbelievable.
Not a lot of rockstars get to pull of all of Scott's accomplishments, but when you constantly make ridiculous career choices, and stop giving a shit, all those accomplishments become NOTHING!
Think of all those radio hits.. Suddenly you're the punch line for every joke in music, and a dude that made paychecks by being a leader of a shitty generation he calls maggots and wears a clown mask on stage while he performs, is making fun of you for being a "lazy piece of shit".
Someone needs to give Scott a serious reality check. Make a fucking collage of his musical history and play it to him. Unlike some, I love his solo work and see 12BB as a modern version of Transformer, but I've always worried that this day will come where nobody wants to work with him. I mean, it's all good when it comes to him being able to put out more solo material, but he seems so uninspired lately. Hopefully all this mess pushes him to succeed even more, and that's all I can really hope for at this point.
His last solo tour blew my mind; I was amazed by how well his vocals were beginning to get back in shape.
It's hard to believe that this has happened to him, and I do hope Slash and them give him a second chance.. Only because STP having him back now will only make things worse. If VR were to get back together, hopefully he'd get the sense of not ever fucking up again, and eventually he'd get to work with both. Although at this point, that's delusional thinking.