Stone Temple Pilots, Wolfmother @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 3/3/2025
Stone Temple Pilots rocked Adelaide in a blaze of glory last night that will no doubt go down as one of the year’s best. This tour was focused solely on celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of their infamous second album Purple and whilst there were no surprises playing it in full and its entirety start to end it was the swashbuckling style which it was delivered that will go down as memorable. Hot damn! This was one of those gigs where you simply had to be at.
As far as opening acts go it does get any bigger or better than Wolfmother. One thing for sure is that they way these guys play raises the bar for anyone else to follow after. It might have only been thirty minutes but it’s what they did with those thirty minutes that mattered. Their set was loaded with good songs starting with Dimension and Rock Out but then getting the crowd in to it on Woman and White Unicorn. Plenty of comradery and adulation on this tour with Andrew Stockdale saying it has been great touring with a band they actually like. Up against a time crunch to fit everything in it was the familiar Apple Train followed by Midnight Train, Colossal and Joker And The Thief to finish their set and essentially having done their job to warm up the crowd.
This gig had been sold out for ages and arguably could have been played in a much bigger venue but the surrounds of Hindley Street Music Hall really suited the rock dynamic that the Stone Temple Pilots were going for. I think the band look surprised by the enormous reaction when they took the stage and played the songs from their highly esteemed album Purple which turned into fun and enjoyment. Right from the opening song Meatplow the band were on and charismatic front man Jeff Gutt was all the swagger and hutzpah you would expect and even himself said that he wasn’t about replacing Scott Weiland but celebrating the legacy of these songs some thirty years later. Nevertheless, the likeness between Gutt and Weiland is uncanny and they are almost a carbon clone. He was incredible to watch and more than did these songs justice.
The crowd went nuts for Vasoline with Gutt leaning out over the crowd using the crowd to balance himself. Encouraging the crowd to make some noise Gutt eluded to the whole “mad mas thunder dome” kind of vibe making the statement “We are the Stone Temple Pilots”. Lounge Fly big tick and an even bigger tick for the enduring charm of Interstate Love Song. Requesting that the lights be turned up so they could see “all the beautiful faces” Gutt spoke of the song Still Remains as the song that reminds him of Scott Weiland.
Pretty Penny and Silvergun Superman were rock solid and I really loved the guitar licks at the beginning of Big Empty. Brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo were fantastic to watch and their guitar playing is phenomenal. Arms were up and the fans were screaming on Army Ants and right up the final track on the album Kitchenware and Candybars Gutt acknowledged the band asking everyone to give it for “writing such an amazing record”.
Right now it would be tough to top off what we had just experienced but the second part of the show was almost like a greatest hits off debut album Core. Wowsers! So good! Sending the crowd in to hyperdrive with the likes of Wicked Garden, big hit single Plush followed by another ripper in Crackerman. After Dead & Bloated the excitement got a bit out of hand for one punter who was dragged out by security seeing quite the police presence walking out of the venue. The finished in fine style with Sex Type Thing making for one hell of a night with Gutt leaving Adelaide with the message “this was fun, we will be back”.
Live Review By Rob Lyon