Stone Temple Pilots & Papa Roach

Christening the brand new Marysville open-air concert hall last Saturday night were Stone Temple Pilots and Papa Roach. The venue is owned and run by Bill Graham Presents, and on opening night it unsurprisingly appeared the venue will be very well run like BGP’s Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View has been for many years. Getting onto the amphitheater grounds from the highway was smooth, parking was free, and staff/police presence focused their efforts on getting people into the show, and not on cracking down on pre-show parking lot partying. Entry through the turnstiles was quick and organized and lines for food, drinks and restrooms moved rather quickly. The hordes of staff members kept a tight control on access to different seating/general admission sections, but were polite and professional. In a surprisingly smart move, the portable seats in the very front of the stage were removed, creating a sizable "pit area" appropriate for a rock show. The pit was only accessible with tickets specific to that section, and this created a few problems with fans that wanted to be there but were not allowed. Most importantly, sound quality was very good in most sections, even in the typically poor side sections furthest from the center.

With their debut album Infest currently streaking up the charts and plenty of MTV exposure, Papa Roach had an impressively large and pumped-up following. Being Vacaville boys, they were something of a hometown band at this show, and the house was filled with long-time fans flashing double "V" signs in shows of dedicated support for their homies. The pit surged into a frenzy of crowd surfing and moshing as soon as Papa Roach started to play their fired up punk/rap synthesis and frontman Coby Dick preached his paradoxical blend of peace, love and fuck you message. Entire rows of stoked fans up front pumped their fists in the air in time with the thrashing music and carried Coby aloft when he went crowd surfing. At the end of the set closing "Destruction" with its chorus of "fuck everything", Coby bid adieu to the fans by saying "Fuck you, Thank you, Good night!"

Stone Temple Pilots hit the stage with lead singer Scott Weiland dressed in a broad-brimmed hat, a long, red scarf, heavy black eyeliner, and his voice distorted from the megaphone he sang through. Coming off a year-long hiatus due to Weiland’s drug and legal problems, STP seemed eager to please, dishing out a hit every few songs in the set and keeping the number of less familiar tunes from their latest album No. 4 small. By the third song, Weiland was shirtless, looking ripped and healthy in spite of his drug addiction(s) and recent stints in jail.

The band has never denied their love for the ‘70s hard rock they grew up on, and the influence of Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin was especially apparent in the band’s live sound and stage show. Dean DeLeo, slamming power chords on a parade of Gibson Les Pauls, sounded and looked pleasingly Page-esque. Weiland looked and moved more than a little like Steven Tyler with an ample share of rock star charisma and arrogance. But collectively, STP could not muster the power of the bands they build their sound on, mainly due to shortcomings in the rhythm section. Bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz, while they played well individually, failed to lock into a mutually uplifting and tight groove like outstanding rock rhythm sections do. Too often they sounded just slightly out of sync with one another. Their beats had no swing or R&B funkiness, but plodded along in a generic way. With the crunchy riffs and catchy hooks of hits such as "Plush" and "Vaseline," along with Dean DeLeo’s fat, distorted tones and Weiland’s powerful and melodic growl, the show stayed entertaining throughout, even if it was not brilliant. An aborted acoustic set was only one song long, due to the on-stage sound problems that "bummed out (the band’s) vibe." Highlights included the deliciously snaky slide guitars on "Big Empty" and the nicked Zeppelin licks of "Interstate Love Song." Notably absent was the power ballad "Creep."

Toward the end of the show, the band began to dish out heavier rock, sounding not unlike the thrashing punk rock of Papa Roach. Coming out for the obligatory encores still shirtless with a beanie pulled down over his spiky hair and elbow-length black vinyl gloves, Weiland was moved enough to go beyond a rock-by-rote method during "Wicked Garden." He was incensed by somebody in the audience that he lambasted as a "little Nazi faggot" and then contradictorily took an anti-prejudice position, declaring himself to be "a black lesbian woman." In an act that was either extremely ironic or an astute political statement, a woman sitting on the shoulders of a male companion right in front of the stage repeatedly flashed her breasts to anybody paying attention during the anti-rape song "Sex Type Thing." Both tunes proved to be climactic closers to a satisfying set and a fine ending to the first night of rock shows at the close-to-Chico venue.

- The Shug

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