I got to the show a little early and didn’t feel like checking out the openers Black rebel Motorcycle club, so I went and chilled out in the new House of Blues tent there at the Pavilion and got to watch a little of the Colts / Giants game, so night going good so far, grabbed a few drinks and headed backstage to get my camera.

That’s when it started, Everyone back stage had this real serious vibe going on and I asked what was up, and in a real non chalet way they said “He’s not here” I took it as somewhat of a joke and asked what do you mean, who’s not here, their answer…Scott Weiland. That’s when I knew this was no joke the band was supposed to be going on at 9pm; it was 8:55pm so that quickly got moved to 9:30pm. Apparently Weiland was on a plane that had just landed in Houston and they were trying to rush him to the Woodlands.

All the while this is going on I can hear people just booing and yelling from the Pavilion. A few cops show up and ask how bad they think it will get if he doesn’t show and if they think more cops are needed to control the crowd. That’s when it started to get a little more serious back stage, people are running around near the stage entrance you can hear yelling, just utter chaos as most of the stage workers were scrambling to get everything in order.

A call comes over the CB radio saying they are 15 minutes from getting there, So we head down to stage front not knowing if Weiland is going to make it on stage or not. While at stage front me and another photographer noticed a piece of tape in front of the mic that said “Houston” figuring Weiland probably wouldn’t know where he was. Even more interested there are six screens on stage all with song lyrics so at this point we know dude has got to be messed up if he doesn’t know the words to songs.

We didn’t even know how right we were, it’s now 10:15pm fans are pissed and the lights go dark. The anger turns to cheers people are ready for the show, the band comes out and is set, Weiland strolls out grabs the mic like he is ready to start, and then. He just starts talking, making no sense for a while, the rest of the guys have this look of horror on their face as if saying what the fuck. During his 8 to10 minute ramble this is what he tells everyone

“I started drinking again. My brother died, me & my wife got divorced, and my whole world basically spun around. So you know what? I’m going to take care of myself because that’s what I need to take care of. Instead of just having a few shows, I want to have a whole hell of a lot of shows”. The band has to start playing the song for him to realize “hey I have a gig to do” and just like someone flipping a light switch he goes in to “Cracker Man” like nothing. But the real story of the night was in between the songs

There was never a moment that one song was played right after the other, nope these were the times when Weiland would again go out in these tangents about nothing with the band having to lead him along with the music for him to snap and go back to singing. It was just a trip to watch him go from looking like he could barely stand up at the mic, to going in to vibrant front man that slithers all over the stage.

I will give the band this, during this whole show they never just threw in the towel and quit. They made dam sure they were going to give the fans their monies worth. Even with Weiland in the condition he was in, when he sang he didn’t miss a beat and was awesome. “Wicked Garden”, “Plush” and “interstate Love Song” were all killer. “Big Empty” had the entire woodlands singing along.
We also got a few new tracks such as “Between the Lines” and “Huckleberry Crumble” from the new self titled album that both sounded pretty good.

The night was closed out with “Sex Type Thing” and encored with “Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart”. Now back to my opening statement “The end is near” the next day after this show I heard that shows were being cancelled so that the band could ‘take a break’ I haven’t much else if they got back on tour schedule yet or not, but we very well may have seen our last STP show here in Houston…