Stone Temple Pilots: Party Like it's 1992

When my brother Chris was growing up in the 90's, he got me interested in the alternative rock bands of the time. One such band was Stone Temple Pilots. He played their debut album Core and the followup Purple hundreds of times, so much so that the songs were ingrained in my head for a long time. A couple of weekends ago at a family get-together, I mentioned that I was attending STP's show at the Myth in Maplewood, and Chris and his girlfriend Katie mentioned they'd like to join me. Katie lives not far from the venue, and had never been there to a show, so it seemed like a perfect show for the three of us to attend.

I got off work early yesterday afternoon, and navigated my way around the typical Minnesota summer road construction to the correct detour exit. I found a Half Price Book store on White Bear Avenue and perused selections for a while before making my way to the local Best Buy and Barnes & Noble at the Maplewood Mall before meeting Chris & Katie at the local Chili's restaurant for supper.

We don't have a Chili's in St. Cloud, so I trusted the "regulars" Chris and Katie when it came to menu selections, as we sat at the bar and enjoyed good food and conversation. We arrived at the Myth about an hour before the show was scheduled to begin. I had to laugh when Chris and Katie, who are younger than me didn't get carded, but I got asked to see my ID immediately after they walked up to the security guard.

This was my third show at the Myth, and as the three of us decided to where to watch the music from, we noticed that there was room on the second floor, in an area I'd never seen open to the public before. We made our way up the stairs, and continued our chat before the opening act Crash Kings took the stage. They were an interesting trio, with frontman Tony Beliveau on vocals, piano, keyboards and synthesizer; his brother Mike Beliveau on bass guitar, and Tom Roslak on drums. This was the first rock band I'd seen live that didn't have at least one electric (or acoustic) guitar song during their set, but I thought they did a good job of keeping the crowd involved as they ran through their 45-minute set, including their hit single "Mountain Man."

My brother had seen STP's frontman Scott Weiland perform a couple of times in another band, Velvet Revolver a few years back, and he was telling me they played a few Stone Temple Pilots songs during those shows, just before STP hit the stage with a lesser-known song from their debut album Core. Weiland, brother guitarists Robert and Dean DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz were touring in celebration of their debut album's 20th anniversary, and Weiland commented early on in their set that they've been a band for so long that they can pretty much predict one another's antics on stage.

During the middle of the set, Weiland started a rambling tale of how the band first played in Minneapolis opening for the long-forgotten band Run Westy Run. The group then started a snippet of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," before launching into the rock radio hit "Interstate Love Song," followed by their mega-smash "Plush."

The band closed their 15-song set with the peppy song "Tripping On a Hole in a Paper Heart," followed up by an quick pair of songs "Unglued" and "Sex Type Thing" as their encore, just as the clock struck eleven. While Chris, Katie and I agreed that it wasn't a perfect set, it was a good way to start off a weekend. I later learned as we made our way to our cars just how many people had filled the Myth, as I saw quite a few concertgoers heading to their cars parked at the nearby Maplewood Mall's parking lot. When we originally got to the show, we were kind of expecting a younger audience, but realizing the band had been around for 20 years, I guess a bunch of them were there to party like it was 1992 all over again.

I made my way home last night around the detours, realizing that I'd seen 19 national acts play live so far this year. I'm not sure if I'll get to any more concerts this year, but if not, I'd have to say that finally getting to hear Stone Temple Pilots play live would be a perfect exclamation point on a great year of concerts in 2012.