Las Vegas Weekly

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Will STP break down before they reach Las Vegas?

According to several reports, the just-reunited Stone Temple Pilots might already be on the rocks again. Radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony claimed that bassist Robert DeLeo—responding to a long offstage delay prior to the band’s May 31 show in New Jersey—shouted “Come on, Axl!” outside singer Scott Weiland’s bus, a reference to infamous riot-inspiring Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose.

Weiland eventually emerged, just in time to earn this critique in the June 2 New York Times: “The feeling imparted by these performances was desultory and joyless. The band never rose above a sort of grim competence … [Weiland’s] voice sounded less flexible than usual, and he sometimes seemed nearly out of breath. He forgot some lyrics and flubbed others, and often used a megaphone as a prop, or perhaps a crutch.”

Sounds awesome. But don’t give away your tickets to one of this week’s two Vegas shows just yet. The June 7 Minneapolis Star-Tribune reviewed thusly: “At 100 minutes, it was streamlined enough never to lag … Wherever his well-publicized substance-abuse problems are at, the needle-thin singer looked and sounded healthy.”

We’ll see for ourselves soon enough.

Stone Temple Pilots with Billy Boy on Poison. June 12 & 14, 8 p.m., $70-$100. The Pearl, 942-7777.