It all started on Tuesday. My radio station occasionally does this thing during the Rod Ryan Show, which is the morning show at 94.5 The Buzz, which is Houston’s ONLY rock radio station, though I do feel like even calling it a rock station is debatable since they only play stupid hipster rock music that I can’t stand, with an occasional throwback to something good like Wasteland by 10 Years or Everlong by the Foo Fighters… Anyways… Anyways the thing is #every20minutes, which is when they give away tickets of some sort on twitter every twenty-minutes. This Tuesday they were giving away tickets to the Revolution 3 tour, which is a revolving headliner tour consisting of Stone Temple Pilots, The Cult, & Bush. Now, I’ve played #every20minutes many time, I just never get picked, or it’s something I could care… for example, Monster Jam must totally be a Texas thing because where I’m from in NJ, we could care less about whose truck is bigger… or a band I don’t like… like 30 Seconds to Mars because I’ve seen them before and Jared Leto’s Second Coming of Christ act isn’t really that interesting… ANYWAYS, alas I digress, on Tuesday they were doing #every20minutes for tickets to the Revolution 3 tour like I said.
I love Stone Temple Pilots. They were actually the first rock band I ever saw in concert. I saw them for the first time in September or October 2000, when I was freshman in college. My dad had bought me tickets for myself and two of my friends to see them during their tour to promote No 4. I remember that concert really well, it was right when Disturbed were breaking into the mainstream,and Stupify was an anthem for all the rebels, and they were the opening band. I went with my friend Mike. We were supposed to go with this guy who we’ll call Blue as well, who we were sort of friends with, but Blue canceled on us for some reason, I don’t remember why, I think it was because he was in fall play at our college and had rehersal, so he gave our ticket without asking to some random stoner whose name I don’t know to this day, but he also lived in our dorm, and for the rest of my freshman year, he would always say “hi” to us. The concert was great. We saw it at the “fuck” center in Philadelphia [it was called the first union center, at the time], before it became the Wells Fargo Center. Scott Weiland didn’t seem that drunk or stoned that night, and put on an amazing set. On the way back from the concert, we took a wrong turn down 95, and wound up in Delaware, and didn’t get back to our dorm until about 3 am, and I had an 8 am art history class the next morning.
Since then I’ve seen Stone Temple Pilots, so many times, I’ve seen them numerous times with the late Scott Weiland, I also saw them with the late Chester Bennington. Out of all the grunge era bands, and I think I can rightfully claim I’m more of a “grungegurl” [one of my first AIM screenames, don’t laugh], Stone Temple Pilots are my favorite band from that era of music followed by Alice in Chains, Bush, and Silverchair.
Bush are also a favorite band of mine. I first heard them when I was in 9th grade. My neighbor Sarah had just bought their CD and wanted to play it, so she came over to my house, and put it in my fancy 5 disc CD player, and as soon as the first chords of “Everything Zen” played I was hooked, and it didn’t hurt that Gavin Rossdale was [and still is] fine as fuck.
Anyhow, so I decided to play along with #every20minutes, figuring I’d never win anyways, and it takes 30 seconds to send a tweet. I sent the tweet when I went inside to get coffee from Starbucks en route to a school training at a different school.
[You can follow me on twitter if you want, but I tend to forget I have a twitter and only remember I have one when it is #every20minutes, so you might be disappointment]
I was following Google maps to get to the school and I had never been there before, so I had the radio volume low so I could hear the directions the GPS was giving me on the labyrinth of downtown Houston roads, when my wrist vibrates about 5 minutes from the school [I have a smart watch, not a fitbit, or an apple watch, but a garmin one that alerts me of social media and shit throughout the day] and it was the Rod Ryan show telling me I had one and needed to email them.
I think I shouted holy shit for the next five minutes until I pulled into the school, and put my car into park, and then proceeded to email them, and they told me I could pick up the tickets the next day.
Holy shit, I won something.
I was really interested in the Revolution 3 tour when it was announced back in spring, but unfortunately it was during a week, where we were both in school, which would normally be fine if the concert was literally in downtown Houston- think NRG, Toyota Center, House of Blues, & Revention Music Center, for example, but the Woodlands are about an hour away with no traffic, and popular concerts always have lots of traffic, which makes it take even longer, and who knew when we’d get home, so I decided not to purchase tickets myself, when they went on sale… But winning them was a completely other story.
Anyhow, right after Justin got home from school, we hopping into his car, went to Sonic [some awesome advice- get a large soda before a concert, leave it in your car during the concert, and 90% of the time it’ll still be fizzy, cold, with some ice-remaining after the show, and nothing tastes better than a Sonic cherry sprite, or whatever, after being in a concert surrounded by people for hours] and drove to The Woodlands.
We actually got a spot at a really close parking lot, for once, we were literally across from the venue… but honestly, I really doubt weekday concerts sell out as much as weekend concerts because of school and work and things.
The one negative thing I experienced at the Woodlands is their new bag policy. I had a bag with me, it wasn’t even a big bag, it was a normal sized purse. The second we walked to the gates, this bitchy lady rudely insisted on measuring my bag, and told me I wasn’t allowed to bring it on, nor could we check it into the venue. I can understand their policy, and I can even appreciate it with all the craziness in the world, but BE CONSISTENT with your policies. I saw so many people with bigger bags than I had- larger purses, backpacks, drawstring bags, etc, throughout the concert, and I personally felt I was singled out for some reason with my bag. There was NOTHING bad in my bag, they could’ve searched the entire fucking bag and seen that, but instead they made me bring my bag back to the car [well Justin brought it for me cuz he’s awesome like that and didn’t want me to miss STP, who were the first act on that night], and they let other people into the venue with bigger bags than mine, and I really don’t think that’s fair, either be consistent, or don’t let bags in, period, don’t pick and choose who gets to bring a bag in and who can’t because that’s bullshit.
Anyhow, basically by the time I got to the lawn, STP came on, and during their first song, Justin came back, and he had tickets? And seat tickets? I was confused. Apparently an employee at the venue had randomly decided to upgrade our seats, so instead of sitting on the lawn, we actually got really decent seats in the pavilion, which was totally random and awesome.
This was Stone Temple Pilots [with Jeff Gutt] setlist:
Wicked Garden
Vasoline
Big Bang Baby
Down
Big Empty
Plush
Meadow
Interstate Love Song
Roll Me Under
Dead & Bloated
Trippin’ On A Hole in a Paper Heart
Sex Type Thing
Here are videos I took from their set:
So what did I think of Jeff Gutt, the new lead singer?
I think he fills the void left with Scott Weiland’s overdose well. I think he even sounds a lot like Scott Weiland. He fits in with the band well. I guess if I had one criticism for him it would be that he’s trying to be Scott Weiland? He dressed a lot like Scott Weiland, copied a lot of Scott Weiland’s move and act [minus the whole American Flag thing during Sex-Type Thing- don’t ask]. So maybe he’s trying too hard to be Scott Weiland? I mean I get it. STP have a very classic sound and fans really love their classic sound, I just wish he would’ve put a little more of his own personal touches on his singing? For example, when I saw STP with Chester, he sounded like Chester, but with an STP Twist, if that makes any sense…. Here’s a video from when Chester was the singer that I took:
I guess, I just wish that Jeff Gutt would try to be Jeff Gutt instead of a reincarnated version of Scott Weiland. Hopefully as more music gets released, Jeff Gutt will put a more personal sound into his singing. Don’t get me wrong, he was really good, the band sounded amazing. I loved every single song and they fucking rocked their set. I just wish Jeff Gutt would try less hard to be someone he’s not, if that makes sense…
But again STP WERE FUCKING AMAZING [capslock necessary].
Here are some pics I took from their set:
The second act up was The Cult. I really don’t have much to say about them, here was their set-list:
Wild Flower
Rain
Spiritwalker
Lil’ Devil
Sweet Soul Sister
Elemental Light
Rise
She Sells Sanctuary
The Phoenix
Fire Woman
Love Removal Machine
I feel similarly about them like I felt about Blue October. I really didn’t know any of their music, I think I may have sort of recognized one song [The only song I knew of Blue October was Hate Me] but really that’s just a maybe. I wasn’t into them at all. I wouldn’t say they put on a bad show either. The people who did know who they were loved the set and were really rocking out to it and having a blast. The band sounded really good too. It’s just not my type of music? I spent the majority of their set in line to buy a Bush shirt. So yes, The Cult were good, but personally they didn’t do anything for me.
But have a few pictures anyways:
Bush were our headliners for our leg of the Revolution 3 Tour.
As much as I love Bush, I wish they weren’t our headlining band. It wasn’t for the lack of wanting them to be the headliner, it was because we had to leave before the end of their set if we wanted to get home and get any sleep before our days at school. Ideally, I wish the lineup had been STP, Bush, and then The Cult, so we could’ve sat through all of Bush’s set instead of leaving after The Sound of Winter.
This was Bush’s complete set:
Machinehead
This Is War [and the Bush shirt I got says Bush on the front, and This is War, on the back, I can’t to see the confused looks on people’s faces when I wear it….]
Everything Zen
The People That We Love
Greedy Fly*
The Sound of Winter
Come Together**
Glycerine
Little Things
Comedown
* On almost every other set list I’ve seen, it says “Swallowed” where “Greedy Fly” is. At my concert, it was not “Swallowed”, it was “Greedy Fly”, therefore I am unsure if we were special and he changed the set list up for us and decided to play “Greedy Fly” instead to be different [on one set list-when they were in Atlanta, it said at that slot he played “Chemicals Between Us” instead of “Swallowed” or “Greedy Fly”] as either the headliner, or just because… Or if everyone who entered the set list online is an idiot and doesn’t actually know Bush’s songs.
** Come Together is a Beatles Cover
Here are some videos I took:
Gavin Rossdale still has it. He is still sexy as hell… He still sounds amazing, and out of all the bands we saw, he had the most energy. The band sounded amazing. Their set was awesome. He rocked. They rocked.
Rock bands are so talented. So many pop artists use backing tracks or pre-recorded vocals at their concerts, rockers never do it, they just bring it. That is why rock will forever be my genre of choice and rock concerts are so amazing.
We left right after “Sound of Winter” to try to get home to get some sleep before school. I hate that we missed so much of their set. I heard a rumor that they might be doing a winter North America tour- I know they at least have a Philly date planned with 10 years [love their song Wasteland] opening, so if they add more dates, and come back to Houston, Bush are definitely worth seeing again, and I will be going.
Have some pictures:
All three of the bands were awesome. And I really have to hand it to them. The Woodlands is an outdoor Pavilion, and Houston has had a heat index in the triple digits for the entire week, and the bands never let the heat get to them. They were all dripping with sweat, and you could even see the sweat dripping from Gavin Rossdale’s face onto his guitar as he played, but not a single band let the Houston heat get to them, they all put 200% or more into their performances.
It was a great concert, and what made it even more awesome was that I actually won something from a radio station, which probably has similar odds to having a winning lottery ticket.
Justin and I both really enjoyed the concert, and it was totally worth getting back at 1 am and struggling through the next day at school on barely any sleep.
Not sure what our next concert will be- TSO releases their tour dates on Monday, if we’re around for their show, we’ll probably buy tickets, as we always do, but we have quite an epic winter road trip planned for the entire winter break, so it basically depends on the concert date, but other than that, we shall see.