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Apr 20, 2026 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

One of Rhino Records’ Record Store Day 2026 offerings is a Stone Temple Pilots live album from 2001. The album finds the band on tour for it’s Shangri-La Dee Da album, the last album from its original run before it took an extended break. One might say that Stone Temple Pilots was not yet dead but perhaps a bit bloated. It had not released a consistently excellent album since 1996’s Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, and while subsequent albums featured some interesting experiments, much of the band’s initial magic was gone.

The band’s set here, from Greensburg, PA on August 4, is a fairly garden variety mix of all the hits you’d expect with a smattering of recent tracks and a deep cut or two. After “Coma,” one of four songs included from the band’s most recent album, singer Scott Weiland addresses the crowd with, “Welcome, we’re Judas Priest,” before charging into the gigantic hit “Vasoline.”

Weiland is in fair voice, a bit all over the place but generally solid. Apart from the predictable hits, the set features “Down” and “Sour Girl” from the band’s 1999 album No. 4, and regrettably only includes one song from Tiny Music, “Trippin’ On a Hole In a Paper Heart,” which here features jittery, spastic bass work. Of the classics, “Creep” is gently rendered and poignant for old school STP fans; one can hear the crowd yelling throughout, and portions of the song are audience-sung. “Days of the Week,” Shangri-La Dee Da’s first single, is a welcome pop interlude from the grunge of the most of the set.

Overall, Live at Rolling Rock 2001 will be satisfying for STP enthusiasts, featuring some of the band’s better late-period work as well as all the welcome favorites. It’s hardly essential listening but RSD manna for fans and obsessives. (www.rhino.com)

Author rating: 6/10