Scott Weiland & The Wiladbouts Play Corpus Christ, TX

Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts
April 28, 2015
Brewster St. Icehouse- Corpus Christi, TX

Less than a month after Scott Weiland’s lead guitarist & longtime friend, Jeremy Brown passed-on into “The Great Gig in the Sky”, Scott Weiland found himself on-the-road again & on his 2^nd stop of the tour; in the Sparkling City by the Sea. The crowd had previously been pumped-up by the opening acts & were anxious to see one of the greatest alternative-rock & grunge singers from the 90’s perform live in an up-close & personal setting. The lights dimmed and this creepy tune being played on a toy piano comes playing over the loudspeakers as the Wildabouts walked out on stage. The crowd begins cheering them on. Weiland, who was visibly shaken (And not having the proper amount of time to grieve his personal loss) walks out on stage slow and precise, letting his gaze fall across the crowd. The fans cheers became louder the closer he came to his megaphone. Picking the megaphone up, Scott Weiland began mimicking the guitar motion made famous by The Who’s, Pete Townshend; while the band opened up with Crackerman.
The very moment, Weiland begins singing; it became evident there were technical issues with sound as he could barely be heard over the band’s playing. Scott Weiland looks off to stage left at the sound-engineer motioning his hand upwards as to signal him to turn his vocals up louder… Soon after, lead guitarist Nick Maybury, can be seen looking into the small window motioning his hands up again signaling the sound engineer to raise Scott’s vocals. Directly after Maybury motioned to the sound-tech, so did Bassist Tommy Black. As the first song continued to play, Weiland still could barely be heard over the band, despite his megaphone being placed to the microphone.
As the first song ended & the second song Modzilla began, Scott Weiland made his way to the square window on the stage to ask that his vocals be turned up a little louder; to no avail. 39 seconds into the song; both Black & Maybury can be seen looking into the window as the sound engineer. 50 seconds into the song Weiland himself looks back into the window yet again. By this time I am sure he is wondering what the fuck is happening. Albeit his vocal volume was a little louder it was nowhere near where it should have been… 2 minutes into the track & Tommy Black again looking into the window, points to Weiland as to show the engineer that Scott’s vocals are not loud enough. Weiland himself walks towards the window; as if to check and see that something is being done about this technical issue as he leans in to talk to the engineer. By this time Weiland is clearly a little upset. And rightfully so. The song ends and Weiland is back at the sound engineer’s window, most likely asking “What in the Actual Fuck?” Amethyst followed Modzilla with continued sound issues; as ½ way through the song Weiland is again motioning to the Sound Engineer to raise his volume to no avail, and once again; this time motioning that his earpiece has now gone out… And again by the songs end, he found himself at the little square window at stage-left.
Like a trooper, Scott Weiland pushed on into the 4^th song of the evening with Meatplow. Despite the technical sound issues at hand, Weiland performed the hit flawlessly. Before the song ended, one of Scott Weiland’s techs entered the stage handing Weiland an ear piece, replacing the malfunctioned one. Continuing the night with their first single off the new album, Weiland & the Wildabouts played Way She Moves, with even more technical issues as Weiland could be seen yet again looking in the Sound Tech’s general direction, shaking his head no. Judging by his lack of movement; it was evident Scott Weiland wasn’t happy. Before the song had a chance to make it to its midpoint; Weiland can again be seen shaking his head “no” in disbelief. Big Bang Baby continued in succession along with Hotel Rio, Parachutes & White Lightning. In all Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts played a 13 song set-list.
This is the very set list that the infamous “Vasoline video” surfaced from & went viral the day after. Since the show, I have received a plethora of FB messages, text messages & phone calls each asking me to weigh in on the night. I’m not going to add to the barrage of scrutiny, persecution, insults & assumptions… I am going to tell it how I seen it. From my point-of-view when I watched it live & when I re-watched that very show on youtube.
What I seen was Scott Weiland, walk out on stage strong; not a full month after losing longtime friend & bandmate, Jeremy Brown. He went out there with the full intent of performing a flawless set in memory of, Jeremy Brown… But encountered very real, very true catastrophic sound failures from his monitors & both earpieces instead… I saw Scott Weiland push on regardless of these issues where as anyone else would have walked off stage & or thrown a huge fit. He pushed on because he is human and knows these sort of things happen. He pushed on because regardless, people paid to see him.
So what if he had a couple drinks before he came out on stage? So what if he was a little intoxicated? I would be too if I was still trying to grieve a personal loss but was still expected to perform for a bunch of people that are unaware of what he is going through personally. People pass off judgement, make assumptions & never really getting the full story. “Oh he’s high on heroin” What if, just what if he slightly sedated by his personal physician to help ease the pain of losing someone close to him? Would you be so quick to pass off judgment based off viewing 1 video out of 13? I challenge anyone to watch the full Corpus Christi, TX show. I challenge anyone to watch the previous show from the 26^th & watch the show from the 30^th too. You’ll see I’m not wrong.
Even with all the technical issues, & controversy surrounding the show I still give it a 10 outta 10.
Oh yeah & Noah, Your Dad Still Rocks!
Review by: Jared Wingate