Stone Temple Pilots in the spring of 1997 were a band caught between creative ambition and personal chaos — which, for STP, was always where the best music lived. Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop had pushed the band’s sound in unexpected directions: Beatles-influenced pop melodies, bossa nova rhythms, psychedelic textures that proved the Weiland-DeLeo partnership was far more than a grunge act. The tour had been interrupted multiple times by Scott Weiland’s well-documented struggles, but when the band hit the stage, they were one of the most electrifying acts in rock. Dean DeLeo’s guitar work was inventive and muscular. Robert DeLeo’s bass lines were melodic anchors. And Weiland — magnetic, unpredictable, dangerous — prowled the stage like he owned every molecule of air in the Onondaga War Memorial. Syracuse got STP at their most volatile and vital.
Your Guide to Live Music in Upstate New York
