Līve, Stone Temple Pilots, und 4 Non Blondes

I follow all things to do with the band called LIVE because this Band is what the spirit of ROCK music is all about! The songs written have true life meaning and LIVE is able to capture all of it and share it in such a joyful ROCKED UP WAY with anyone who puts an ear to it!

Their Shows are always a BLAST cause everybody's singing and rockin' along Just like the band wants them all to do! I loved LIVE with Ed Kowalczyk as the frontman (but he's doing his solo thing now, which I also stay close to). So it's a new beginning for the rest of the original members (Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey and Patrick Dahlheimer) with their new frontman Chris Shinn to keep pressing forward for All things LIVE!

Chris Shinn is an AWESOME fit for this spot; not as a replacement for Ed (no one could ever replace Ed Kowalczyk) but for sure the right guy to be the frontman of what is LIVE now.

Anyway, everybody in LIVE and all their fans are all kinds of excited because LIVE is getting ready to release a new album with their new frontman Chris Shinn that's GONNA KICK ASS! Woohoo! LIVE ARE BACK!!

If Scott Weiland is sober, he could’ve fooled me. Sober or not, I have to say Scott and the rest of Stone Temple Pilots are proving they arn’t just some over-aged rockers trying to cash in on a fading popularity. I only saw STP once in their heyday, at SDSU in 1995. I have now seen them 3 times in as many years since their reunion and they have never let me down, as improbable as that might sound. When STP announced their comeback in 2008 I probably would have laughed it off if I had not seen Velvet Revolver rock the shit out of the Live 8 stage in London a couple years prior. That show made me a believer in Weiland‘s rock-star skills, if not in his new found sobrity. The Berkeley stop was not only nostagilic, as I hoped it would be, it was a kick-ass rock show. This didn’t seem like a band just reliving the 90′s; they seemed current, fun and non-apologetic. They did the same thing at the Fillmore here in Denver the next year. I had serious doubts Weiland, who now resembles Eminem in his wife-beater, would make it long enough for me to see them once, much less twice. And now, here we are, 3 years later and they are headliningg Red Rocks…in support of a new album?!!! An album that doesn’t live up to their first 2, but is actually pretty damn good?!!! What the hell is going on? Unfortunately for STP, there is a difference between 2010 and 1995. In 1995 they would have been able to sell out back-to-back nights in any given city. In 2010 it’s hard to sell out two venues in the same city within an 8 month period. The Fillmore show was pretty packed last October. Red Rocks was much less so on Tuesday night. That being said, those who didn’t make it missed a great rock show. The weather was perfect; it doesn’t get much better than a warm evening with a cool breeze coming through Red Rocks. STP performed all their major hits like Wicked Garden, Interstate Love Song, Vasoline and Sex Type Thing. They did 4 or 5 from the new album, of which Huckleberry Crumble really resonanted live…a down and dirty blues number. A real highlight for me was Still Remains, a song from Purple they had not performed live in over 12 years. That, along with a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s Dancing Days, both brought me back to the carefree days of beach living in San Diego. The encore of Dead & Bloated and Trippin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart (dedicated to the troops) ended the night right. To be honest, I wasn’t going to attend this show, but my wife had never seen them and we were able to score 15th row seats. The sound was amazing down there and the light show was pretty impressive. This was one of the few shows I have seen where the band didn’t prefer the natural rock backdrop on this iconic stage. But even though STP were labeled grunge, they always tilted away from that scene and more toward the glam of L.A.’s sunset strip…so I can see them prefering an over-the-top light show vs. some old red rocks.

It was great to be able to see the band 4 non blondes in concert. I was able to see them as part of a reunion they did for a charity event. The concert was part of a gala in Los Angeles to raise money for important local groups. There were many other bands that played but the reunion of 4 non blondes was the highlight of the night.

The concert was held at the Beverly Hilton. It was a celebration of Women so the 4 non blondes was a great choice for such an event. They had not played together since 1994 so it had been almost two decades. Most of the members are either in other bands or are successful songwriters and/or musicians. The band only did one of their songs, the smash hit “What’s Up”. Everyone knew every word to the song as it was such a hit in the 90s, and the crowd sang along the whole time. It is a testament to the power of the song when people still know the words 20 years later and the band has not been together in 20 years. They were able to raise a lot of money that night and provided a very upbeat and nostalgic experience.