FAMILY VALUES TOUR
Hartford Civic Center
October 26
The Family Values Tour rocked the Hartford Civic Center last Friday, with Stone Temple Pilots, Staind, Linkin Park, Static X, and Deadsy rolling through more than four hours of music.
Opening the Family Values Tour was Deadsy. Sounding like a bad Orgy cover band, Deadsy got absolutely no one into their act, with the arena seats at least half empty and the floor two thirds of the way so. Thankfully, their half hour set ended quickly.
Next to take the stage was metal band Static X. Static X put on a decent thirty-five minute set, weaving their old and new material together. Front man Wayne Static snarled and roared in his odd voice, getting the floor crowd moshing for the first time of the night. Static closed with their breakthrough hit, “Push It.”
The second to the last band for the night was Springfield’s very own Staind. Staind’s set was about an hour long. After opening with “Open Your Eyes” and “Mudshovel,” Staind played a fair share of their newest album, Break the Cycle, with “Fade,” “Suffer,” “Take It,” and “For You” all making the set list. “Crawl,” a track from the older Dysfunction, also made the list.
Mixed in, Staind actually pulled off really good covers of their cash-cow songs, “Outside” and “It’s Been a While.” This marked a major change from Staind’s last Hartford performance in July, where the two songs were among the worst of the night. For “Outside,” the band brought out multiple acoustic guitars to accompany Aaron Lewis’s playing and singing, rather than leaving him alone like they did at the July Expo Center show. The difference was remarkable, and the gut-wrenching effect to the song returned. Staind closed for the night with the angry “Spleen,” the last track on Dysfunction.
Headliners STP amazed the many in attendance that stayed to watch. I’d say at least a thousand teenyboppers left after Linkin Park and Staind, totally writing off Stone Temple Pilots as a waste of their time. Big mistake. Considering their diminishing popularity in the past few years after a few lackluster albums, STP’s performance was a joy to behold. They rolled through all the classics, covering most of their best-selling albums, Core and Purple. After opening with “Crackerman,” STP pounded out raucous covers of “Plush,” “Wicked Garden,” “Plush,” “Interstate Love Song,” and several others. The tempo on many of these was slower than the album versions, but they were hard, edgy and gritty. No one seemed to mind.
After running through most of their hard hitters, STP switched stages. On a revolving stage with couches, they covered acoustically “Sour Girl,” “Days of the Week,” and “Creep,” among others.
A major highlight to Stone Temple Pilots’ performance was “Dead and Bloated.” To the crowd’s delight, front man Scott Weiland called out Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington for the song. With Weiland and Bennington each wielding a megaphone on opposite sides of the stage, the two took turns belting out the beginning verse of the song, in rounds. Bennington then added his snarling screams and vocals to the rest of the tune, supplying energy and comedy with his showmanship.
STP came out for an encore with patriotic colors galore and a New York City backdrop. Weiland came out carrying the American flag. To the crowd’s surprise, STP launched into a cover of the Beatle’s classic, “Revolution.” The song was very fitting and well received. Then things got weird. Weiland did the predictable rock-star thing: he tried to shock people. Draping the flag around his waist like a towel, Weiland removed the rest of his clothing. The crowd gasped. Why? Even if it may have been funny to some, it was in incredibly poor taste and tacky, that’s why. STP closed the encore with “Sex Type Thing,” with Weiland singing wearing the flag. He was then stripped of his flag by band mates and ran off the stage bare-butt naked.
The middle act of the night was Linkin Park. Opening with “With You,” Linkin’s energy and musicianship were both amazing. The half-empty Civic Center filled up quickly as they hit the stage. They proceeded to play most of the songs on the Hybrid Theory disc that has one them fame. Loud, boisterous covers of “Points of Authority,” “Papercut,” “Crawling,” “Runaway,” “In the End,” and “Pushing Me Away” got the crowd up and on its feet, with most in attendance belting out every word along with vocalists Bennington and Mike Shinoda. Linkin Park closed with “One Step Closer.”
To make it clear: the music did not command the full attention of the crowd until Linkin went on. Realistically, I thought they stole the show. The crowd got what the expected with Staind – great, angry, emotional music without too much of a live show. The crowd was pleasantly surprised, but not overwhelmed with Stone Temple Pilots. Linkin was outstanding. I for one did not think they would be that good in person. I had written them off as an over-dubbed, corporate group that made good album music. I was wrong. Linkin Park puts on one hell of a show.
