SCOTT WEILAND (Live)

at The Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, WI, USA, January 30, 2009

After making audiences wait an hour to be blessed with his presence, he scatted for 15 minutes. Still waiting to see if he brought the Motts, the next few songs were lackluster. When he finally broke into Stone Temple Pilot’s trademark “Vasoline”, his vocal motors were seemingly humming. Unfortunately, this famous piece was presented in a manner that was substantially more anemic than people remembered.

Once the hype of it died down, rigor mortis set into the spectators. To put this in perspective, “Vasoline” was a song that not only dominated the airwaves but was a frequent attendant at house parties across the continent. Suffice to say, more petrol was expected from this popular cure-all. It seemed as if the song was being covered by another artist rather than delivered by its originator.

Speaking of which, the band Scott Weiland’s put together appears to be a group of talented chaps. Each is competent with their instrument; however, they don’t have chemistry and were absent of even the lowest doses of synergy.

Interpersonal alchemy aside, each one was busy playing their own rock star game, and the lead guitarist had no business switching consoles. He registered a low score on the keyboards due to many missed slash unintended notes. Likewise, the drummer was unnecessarily heavy-handed, especially on balladic numbers taken from the album, Happy in Goulashes. Add to that a sound quality that was loud and muddled. The noisy puffery didn’t conceal very corporeal problems.

When all was said and done, this gig was a real disappointment and people left in droves while much of the show remained to be relinquished.

On a positive note, Weiland has a good voice, knows how to use it, and had repeatedly shown moments of greatness. Not to mention, his delivery of “Interstate Love Song” in the wee hours of the night sounded all right and took him out of deeper waters. So there is no point on giving up on him just yet. He’ll be a force to reckon with if and when he gets his act together again.

Author

  • Joshua Turner

    Joshua was a reviewer and interviewer here at Metal Express Radio. Iced Earth, Judas Priest, and Opeth are among his favorite bands, as well as Spock’s Beard and The Flower Kings. Once upon a time, the radio was a stopping point for him. From the day he discovered side-projects and Scandinavian imports, it all changed overnight. Outside of music, his passion is roller coasters. But when he's grounded and at home, he belong in the company of musical aficionados and technical shredders. He’ll get his jollies listening to Jazz Fusion when his favorites are in short supply. Still, if he had his druthers, give him a pretentious epic with a high-brow concept any day of the week (and slap on a guitar line with oodles of power chords for good measure).

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