Stone Temple Pilots Slam Rap Rockers At Family Values Stop
ROSEMONT, Illinois — The 2001 Family Values Tour boasts two acts — Linkin Park and Staind — with triple-platinum albums currently in the
Billboard top 10, though neither group is the headliner. That
distinction goes to Stone Temple Pilots, who met the challenge at the
tour's second stop Friday, at the Allstate Arena near Chicago.
Led by Scott Weiland, Stone Temple Pilots played like a band with
something to prove to the young crowd of some 15,000 fans, which —
nearly a decade after the release of their debut album, Core, and
in an era dominated by rap-rock and nü-metal — they do.
The quartet wasn't above using borrowed star power to their advantage,
bringing Richard Patrick of Filter onstage for an explosive version of
that band's 1995 hit, "Hey Man, Nice Shot."
Weiland, who emerged in a priest's collar but played most of the set
shirtless, took several apparent shots at the other bands on the bill.
"F--- nü-metal!" he screamed before launching into the Pilots' 1994 hit
"Big Empty." "How 'bout rock and roll?"
One song later, in a screeching tirade seemingly directed at Linkin
Park, Weiland said, "I ain't no motherf---ing rapper! But I got one
thing in common with every one of you [fans]: rock and roll!"
As if to make clear just where the band is coming from, STP later
covered Led Zeppelin's "Dancing Days."
Now touring in support of its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da, the
quartet has plenty of its own hits to draw on, of course. Friday's set
included such familiar fare as "Creep" and "Trippin' on a Hole in
a Paper Heart."
Staind preceded the Pilots with an hour-long performance that emphasized
the moody metal of the foursome's 2001 disc, Break the Cycle,
including the recent hit "It's Been Awhile." Aaron Lewis sat on a stool
to strum and sing "Outside" while the crowd's cigarette lighters
twinkled in the dark.
The band dipped into 1999's Dysfunction for "Mudshovel" and the set closer, "Spleen."
Released a year ago, Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory is still lodged
at #7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The Los Angeles band may have the
less-than-glamorous middle slot among five acts on the Family Values
Tour, but the rap-rock sextet was a fan favorite.
That was thanks in no small part to the energetic efforts of singer
Chester Bennington, who leapt from amp cabinets and more than once waded
into the crowd.
Linkin Park played their hits, including "One Step Closer" and "In the
End." They also reached back to their pre-major-label EP for "Step
Up," a little-heard number in which MC Mike Shinoda took a Weiland-like
shot at rival rap-rockers: "Rapping over rock doesn't make you a
pioneer/ 'Cause rock and hip-hop collaborated for years/ But now they're
getting readily mixed and matched up/ After a fast buck and all the
tracks suck."
The industrial metal outfit Static-X and newcomers Spike 1000 played the
opening sets. Beginning with the October 18 show at the MCI Center in
Washington, D.C., Deadsy will replace Spike 1000 in the first slot.
The tour began Thursday in Cleveland and continues through mid-November.