Phoenix, Arizona–As a GenXer whose formative decade was the 90s, when I discovered Stone Temple Pilots was co-headlining with +LIVE+ on a Phoenix stop at Arizona Financial Theatre on August 19, 2024, my glee was palpable. When I learned Soul Asylum was opening, it was the icing on the cake as these bands performed the soundtrack for my high school and college experience.
Back in high school I delivered pizzas for spending cash. I remember driving the winding Western Pennsylvania roads and keeping the 1993 Soul Asylum Grammy-winning album “Grave Dancers Union,” running on repeat on my CD player. “Somebody to Shove” became my angsty anthem, and I loved everything lead singer David Pirner did. This included Soul Asylum’s later cover of Victoria Williams’ “Summer of Drugs” and Pirner’s more obscure cameo as Janeane Garaofalo’s latest conquest in the film Reality Bites (1994). I was pleased to hear they were opening for the co-headlining Jubilee Tour.
While they only performed six songs, running onto the stage and launching into “Somebody to Shove” was a helluva great way to introduce the show. Soul Asylum slowed it down for “Misery” before amping up to the 2024’s “High Road,” demonstrating to the audience this band’s still got it 43 years later. They played “Runaway Train” and “Black Gold”, both well received over the years. After “Bittersweet Heart” and “Just Like Anyone,” Pirner and the band headed off stage, thanking everyone and clearly energized for the remainder of the tour. Soul Asylum Set List
Growing up in Pennsylvania and attending Penn State, I was intimately close to the early years of +LIVE+ back when they were still performing as Public Affection. When “Throwing Copper” hit the airwaves in 1994, the music world was rocked by songs like “I Alone”, “Selling the Drama”, and the ubiquitous “Lighting Crashes”. This show commemorated the 30th anniversary of the pressing. I saw the band multiple times in the mid-1990s as they played small clubs with only a few dozen people, to larger festivals and 20k capacity arenas. Heck, +LIVE+ was my 19 year old daughter’s first concert, even. Ed Kowalcyzk, the only original band member on the Jubilee tour, was backed by touring members Justin Wiseman, Zak Loy, Johnny Rabb (of Collective Soul), and Chris Heerlin. After the first three songs, I stowed my gear and headed back into the venue to catch the rest of the set. They opened with “Top” before getting the crowd to their feet with fan faves “All Over You” and “Selling the Drama.” The remaining songs in the set were a collective greatest hits of the storied band’s history. While no band plays everything every fan wants to hear, +LIVE+ performed “Dolphin’s Cry”, “Pain Lies on the Riverside,” and “White Discussion,” satiating the appetite of those nostalgic fans who wanted to relive their early years. +LIVE+ Set List
Three shows into the Jubilee Tour, Stone Temple Pilots (STP) headlined the show in Arizona. Before they even arrived, the theatre continued to fill during +LIVE+’s performance as STP was clearly the largest draw for the crowd. With STP at the forefront of the grunge rock movement and discussed in the same breath as Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, the band remains hugely relevant 30 years later. While the passing of their original lead singer, Scott Weiland, and the years with Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington are both discussed ad nauseum in the media, STP has moved into a new era with lead singer Jeff Gutt. Gutt injects energy into an already solid rock band that has weathered the years to continue creating the art that made them great in the first place. Gutt exuded moxie as he sauntered up to the mic to open the evening with 1994’s b-side “Meatplow.” As the number slowed, Gutt jumped off the stage into the photo pit as brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo launched into “Vaseline” off 1994’s “Purple” album. Security ran to protect Gutt as he climbed onto the barrier to connect more intimately with the audience. The crowd was all smiles and reached out to high-five Gutt as he moved down the line, high above the crowd, singing the hit song as if he’d been performing it for decades. Watching the DeLeo brothers, Gutt and drummer Erik Kretz jam through hits like “Interstate Love Song” and “Big Empty” brought me (and probably hundreds of others) back to our heydays 30 years ago. The band commemorated the 30th anniversary of Purple and played through the wildly popular album before finishing the set with hard hitters that included “Plush,” “Dead and Bloated,” “Trippin,” and “Sex Type Thing.” STP Set list
The Jubilee co-headlining tour of “Plush” and “Throwing Copper” with Soul Asylum (and Our Lady Peace on some dates) was the perfect sort of nostalgia and proof that all bands involved still have it after all these years.
