So last night it was back to the old Westpac Trust, the site of many a deafening barrage of noise, huge sweaty moshpit and hour long wait in the dark. It was about a half hour wait before The D4 (I almost wrote The Datsuns there) came on. I expected them to stink up the place, but they actually went off quite a bit. Personally I found it pretty dull, but the audience was moshing more than I've ever seen for a opening act. So respek to them for being a good opener.
It was an hour wait after they finished before Velvet Revolver came on. More than enough time to sample the erudite conversation and pleasant odour of my fellow concert-goers, the former revolving around how much they'd had to drink, or which people would be easier to push over to get to the front. I won't start on the smell. So after the interminable wait the lights suddenly went off, everyone went nuts, and Duff (the bass player) strikes a big spotlit rock pose at centre stage. I tried to be cool and collected about the whole thing, but seeing a bunch of rock legends like Slash in the flesh made me shriek like a school girl. OK, not so much shriek like a schoolgirl but more like kick people out of the way to get to the front like a munter. While the guys from Gunners were pretty awesome, it was Scott Weiland who really exuded stage presence. He came out dressed in a sort of military dress uniform, complete with tight shiny pants and a cap decorated with the iron cross.
I'm pretty sure my setlist is accurate, except that I'm not too familiar with the old Stone Temple Pilots and Gunners stuff, so I'm relying on setlists from previous shows.
Sucker Train Blues – opening with the first track from the new album. It's not very original and it always annoys me a bit when they do that. Anal I know! It's not my favorite song of theirs but it went off pretty hard. I was all primed to be in a good position to watch Slash's solo, but when it came time, he was standing at the back of the stage facing his amp. He came out to the front of the stage for the second half of it, but was very laid back. What a tease!
Do It for the Kids – Scott starts pulling off his clothes item by item.
Headspace – Slash tells us we're one of the best audiences they've played to this tour. I bet he says that to all the girls!
Superhuman – Thats four heavy songs in a row and the moshpit is still going nuts. Lots of idiot teenagers totally fucked up on booze or drugs. I do my best to encourage them to leave...
STP song I didn't know (Crackerman I believe) – Very well received. I felt dumb for not knowing it.
Illegal I Song – One of the best songs of the night, with a very long extended breakdown (the 'It's killing time on the streets' bit), with Slash playing a long mellowed out solo, I think he was modulating his voice with his guitar. It was very very cool!
Fall to Pieces – They played this one pretty straight. The crowd was into it in a major way of course. It's always cool to sing along to a ballad like this with a bunch of drunken munters.
Dirty Little Thing – Dedicated to a spoiled blonde heiress to a hotel chain. And he's not talking about the Four Seasons. One of their heaviest songs, so I was bit disappointed with the lack of hardout moshing. I guess all the wasted munters were too mellowed out from Fall to Pieces. I did my best to make up for them though!
Big Machine – OK, even I was getting a bit tired for this one...
Two songs I didn't know (research reveals that it was 'It's So Easy' by Gunners and 'Sex Type Thing' by STP) – Again I felt stink for not knowing these ones. Scott made a pretty cool speech during Sex Type Thing about not letting anyone take your freedom away. “Does it feel good to be alive today?” (big cheer), “Does it feel good to be free today?” (big cheer), “Do you feel free when you fuck?” (little cheer). Us New Zealanders have some queer hangups I think.
Set Me Free – Closing the main set with their first single. An awesome extra ending, with Slash and Dave Kushner trading riffs on the solo, and Slash playing his guitar behind his head.
First encore:
I Used to Love Her (Old Gunners song) – Slash comes back out (wearing his top hat!) and sits down to play a really nice acoustic solo. I just wished the audience had quietened down a little so I could hear it better. Slash plays his most technically impressive solo at the end of this song.
Set Me Free – My favorite song of theirs! A bit of a ballad, and I made with the waving arms and the closed eyes, much to the amusement of the drunk teenagers around me. Slash pulls out his double necked guitar for this one. Apparently one's electric and the other is acoustic.
Second encore:
Mr. Brownstone – I knew this one! Not so popular with the younger crowd.
Slither – As you can expect this one sent the crowd into a frenzy. Well, me at least. They added a cool breakdown after the solo which was pretty good.
In the end these guys totally blew me away. I wasn't actually expecting much from a big mainstream stadium band, but they put on a great show. I was there mainly to see Slash, my guitarist idol, but I was very impressed by Scott Weiland's stage presence too. And Dave Kushner, the rhythm guitarist and the only one of these guys not from another super popular band, impressed me too. He was low key and mostly avoided the limelight, but he's a pretty good guitarist too, and I liked his casual demeanor.
My only disappointments were that they didn't play 'Loving the Alien' off their new album, and that they didn't play any covers of other bands like they have at previous shows. In the past they've done 'Five to One' by The Doors and 'Negative Creep' by Nirvana, among other things, but it would have been awesome to see either of those.
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