Event Recap: Stone Temple Pilots at Irving Plaza

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After years of private and public turmoil between frontman Scott Weiland and the rest of the members of multi-platinum rockers Stone Temple Pilots, the band finally parted ways with their singer in February of 2013. A year later they reappeared as special guests at the KROQ Weenie Roast with Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, filling Weiland’s role and performing under the name Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington. After a couple years of legal battles, STP was finally able to drop the ‘with Chester Bennington’ and return to performing as Stone Temple Pilots. They brought their new official lineup to NYC on April 27th for a sold out show at Irving Plaza.

Stone Temple Pilots @ Irving Plaza

The band took the stage, Bennington sporting neon pink hair, and immediately went into Lounge Fly off 1994’s Purple. It was after the first song when Chester stopped to say, “Hi, we’re the Stone Temple Pilots,” that it became clear that despite the loss of their original singer, the Stone Temple Pilots are here to stay. They followed with Vasoline, another track off of Purple and one of seven of their songs to reach #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts (six of which they would play before the night was through).

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Only two songs in and STP had the entire crowd mentally back in the 1990s. Next up was Wicked Garden off their 1992 debut album Core. It sounded like every single person in the crowd was singing along to the chorus. Sex Type Thing followed, keeping up the string of hits.  

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The band jumped forward to 1999’s No. 4 for Pruno, which saw a sweaty yet energetic Bennington leaning into the crowd holding his microphone tightly. Crackerman was next, followed by a treat for fans with performances of Coma and Sin, both of which are rarely heard live. Back to the staples, Big Bang Baby was next, with Bennington joking afterwards that he “almost got the song right” which got laughs from the rest of his bandmates.

After regrouping, the band jumped right into Out of Time, their first new single written and recorded with Chester Bennington. The band shredded through renditions of Heaven and Hot Rods and Meatplow before Bennington surprised the crowd by grabbing an acoustic guitar for Adhesive. This set the stage for Creep, one of STP’s most well known songs.

During the next song, Big Empty, a belligerent fan got so rowdy that guitarist Dean DeLeo stopped the song to demand that security remove him from the show to prevent any more disruptions. The crowd was disappointed in the song being cut short, so the band asked if they should start it from the beginning which got a huge cheer.

Bennington hopped off the stage and onto the barricade for Plush where he sang along with those fans lucky enough to be up front. Returning to the stage, Chester bowed to Dean and hugged him before the band went into another of their #1 hits, Interstate Love Song. Picking the pace back up, the band tore through Down and Sex & Violence before closing out their set with Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart.

Receiving an ovation, Bennington reached out to shake some fans hands before leaving the stage. But despite being two hours into the set, this wasn’t the end of the night! As chants of “S. T. P.” got louder and louder, the band returned to the stage to perform a couple more songs off their debut albumPiece of Pie and Dead and Bloated.

Overall the night was a dream come true for Stone Temple Pilot fans who believed the loss of Weiland spelled the end of the band. After over two hours of watching the band perform with Chester Bennington, it is clear that there is no lack of chemistry or talent. The band is preparing to enter the studio for the first time in over five years to record a new album, due out sometime this fall.