Nurture the spark of inspiration generated by a group of musicians, and it’s possible to leave a mark lasting for generations. Minimize its importance, and everything can fall apart.
Two different acts from the same moment in music — the early 1990s — illustrated the possibilities and pitfalls of this reality on Friday night at Dos Equis Pavilion. Stone Temple Pilots and Live shared a bill on what’s been dubbed the “Jubilee Tour,” as each group has a milestone to mark in 2024: The 30th anniversaries of, respectively, their second and third albums.
Stone Temple Pilots has carried on in the wake of singer-songwriter Scott Weiland’s untimely death in 2015, at age 48, from an accidental drug overdose. So singular was the mercurial Weiland’s approach to art that it was entirely reasonable to look at the surviving musicians and wonder precisely how Stone Temple Pilots would carry on.
But brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo, along with Eric Kretz, held fast — preserving much of the band’s style and, more crucially, chemistry. Dean DeLeo’s gnarly guitar lines wrap around Kretz’s muscular, textured drumming with as much force as ever — the driver of the car may be gone, but its one-of-a-kind engine still purrs.
Ed Kowalczyk (left) is the only original member of Live still performing with the band.
Simon Pruitt
Live was also touring behind an anniversary of its album Throwing Copper, but did not play it in full.
Simon Pruitt
Purple, STP’s sophomore album, was and is one of the defining albums of the 1990s, not least because of the gargantuan success of hit singles “Vasoline,” “Big Empty” and “Interstate Love Song.”
But as the four men tore through the LP from start to finish on Friday, it was possible to appreciate anew how deeply weird the mainstream once was — “Meatplow,” “Lounge Fly” and “Unglued” are thrillingly bizarre word salads married to thick slabs of grungy, glittery rock — and how durable the music remains, nearly all it crafted by the DeLeos.
The roughly 85-minute set was pure uncut nostalgia for the children of 120 Minutes: The entirety of Purple (complete with a playful Gutt teasing the album’s loungey postlude: “The second album ...”), and four tracks from its equally unimpeachable predecessor, 1992’s Core (“Plush,” “Dead & Bloated,” “Crackerman” and “Sex Type Thing”) — thank you and good night.
Weiland’s absence was tastefully acknowledged — the visuals on the large video screen above the stage showed a flurry of pink feathers during “Interstate Love Song,” for instance, a moving reference to Weiland’s outfit in the iconic music video — but this version of Stone Temple Pilots, thankfully, was very much its own thing, a band slightly reconstituted, but still possessed of most of its original magic.
The venue was nowhere near packed Friday — whether it was a function of the punishing heat, an indifference to ‘90s rock or a surfeit of choices for spending one’s concert dollars, it’s hard to say — but those who were gathered in Fair Park were ferocious in their appreciation for the music.
“You guys are the loudest crowd on the tour so far,” Gutt observed. “You’re the hottest show, and the wildest — you guys are winning at life!” Prodded by Robert DeLeo, the audience also sang “Happy Birthday” to his brother, Dean, who turned 63 on Friday.
At the other end of the alchemy spectrum sat Live, a group with just one original member — lead vocalist Ed Kowalczyk. The 70-minute set was an exercise in frustration, not least because the ostensible impetus for the tour (Throwing Copper’s 30th anniversary) was seemingly ignored for a grab bag of tunes, including a new song recorded earlier this summer.
The tortuous backstory of how Live came to be only Kowalczyk lies in a thicket of accusations, conflict and legal wranglings — Rolling Stone has a fine primer on the whole mess — but the result (for now) is the vocalist of a once-great alt-rock act fronting what often felt like a cover band. (Friday marked Live’s first appearance in Dallas in five years; the last North Texas appearance from the original line-up was in 2018.)
Guitarist Zak Loy, bassist Chris Heerlein, drummer Johnny Radelat and keys player Nick Jay — none of whom have been with Kowalczyk for more than two years — backed him on Friday, and the lack of cohesion on songs more than 30 years old was agonizing.
Why the band didn’t just play through Throwing Copper is a headscratcher — especially since eight songs of the 14-song setlist were from the LP. Instead, Live hopped around, pulling in material from (the also spectacular) Secret Samadhi and The Distance to Here, as well as the execrable new tune “Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’).”
If there was any throughline or momentum or purpose beyond shamelessly milking nostalgia — Kowalczyk babbled something about a prayer for health and wealth before the set-closing “Lightning Crashes,” which got one of the bigger responses of the night — it wasn’t apparent.
Hearing ‘90s staples such as “Turn My Head” or “White, Discussion” rendered a sludgy mess as Kowalczyk tried to hit the falsetto of his youth, only to come up with often-strangled yelps, was deeply disappointing.
The musicians made it through, but it was evident this new version of Live has not yet gelled — maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But if nothing else, especially when contrasted with the precision of Stone Temple Pilots’ new look, Live’s uninspiring set was a vivid reminder of the value of alchemy.
