STP Rock Edgefest

Downsview Park

Toronto, ON

on Jul 12 2008

Shehzaad Jiwani (CHARTattack)

07/14/2008 10:14am

Before I say anything about this year's Edgefest, let me take a moment to commend the organizers for one thing: the food. Never in my life have I seen such a smorgasbord of goodies up for grabs at a show. Nearly every cuisine was represented on the concert grounds. You want a burrito? No problem. Jerk chicken? They had it. Lasagna? Only five bucks! Hats off to whoever made this decision, as they are truly gods among men.

I bet you're thinking, "If food is the first thing this guy mentions, he can't have much to say about the bands." Well, I don't. A couple of great bands mixed in with a dozen mediocre ones isn't my idea of a day well spent — especially when it consists mostly of hiding from several spots of rain and (unsuccessfully) dodging fistfuls of mud hurled at you by the mouth breathers reliving Woodstock '94 a few metres away. So, the food was great. The rest of the show, not so much.

The last few Edgefests at the Molson Amphitheatre were skewed far more to the pop-punk/screamo crowd, but they at least had decent lineups if that was your bag. This year seemed to be more in line with the spirit of Edgefests past with the move to Downsview Park, but the lineup was abysmal. With the obvious exception of the newly reunited Stone Temple Pilots, I can't imagine why most people would show up for the festival. And judging by the largely empty field, I wasn't the only one who thought that way.

I got to the park just as Attack In Black took the stage. They seemed as indifferent as the audience was towards them, but they were still in top form. They played a number of songs off their The Curve Of The Earth album, including "You're Such An Only Child," which is easily one of their best songs. If there's any justice, this band will be headlining festivals like this in coming years. As luck would have it, that was one of the very few high points of the day.

I'd never heard Ashes Divide before, and if there is a God, I'll never have to hear them again. How goth-lite, alt.rock groups like this continue to exist is beyond me, but the black-haired, black-clothed, black-guitared band didn't even attempt to differentiate themselves from the myriad Cure/Depeche Mode knock-offs of their ilk. Singer Billy Howerdel (who you might know from his gig in A Perfect Circle) even introduced one of their songs by saying, "We ripped this song off some other band." No shit.

Thankfully, The Bravery were a tad more energetic, but no less annoying. I wasn't even aware that anyone still gave a shit about the band, but then I remembered who was headlining the festival. The New Yorkers had the misfortune of playing during the heaviest wave of rain, but that worked out nicely for those who couldn't stand any more of frontman Sam Endicott's pedestrian stage banter and cringe-worthy Robert Smith/Ian Curtis impressions.

The torrential downpour luckily only lasted for the duration of The Bravery's set and didn't interrupt anyone worth watching, like the Sam Roberts Band. The boys came out right on time to raise some rained-out spirits, and raise them they did. Roberts is far more aggressive live than you'd imagine, given the good-natured sound of his albums. The bearded francophile rocks out damn hard, and that's exactly what the audience needed at that point.

Sticking closely to his last two albums, with only "Brother Down" representing his debut, Roberts and company provided the classic rock vibe for the day. Every song was a hit with the crowd, even if most people were only familiar with singles "Bridge To Nowhere" and "Them Kids." Even the elongated jam at the end of "Mind Flood" was well-received, with the 10-minute closer only leaving everyone wanting more.

It would have been nice if Roberts had stuck around to entertain the crowd for a while, as the Stone Temple Pilots decided to wait for over an hour before they finally hit the stage — after it started raining again. The big topic on everyone's mind was whether or not the band would even show up, and considering more than half the audience was there to see them, a no-show would have been disastrous.

At this point, I wondered to myself, "Why do people even give this much of a shit that they've reunited?" I use that term loosely, considering they only went on "hiatus" like five or six years ago. They're no Led Zeppelin. Hell, they're not even Soundgarden. This is coming from someone who frequently defends STP from certain editors at the Chart office. Was Velvet Revolver so bad that people have started to look at this faux-grunge band as actual rock legends?

Regardless, the audience went apeshit when the boys finally showed up on stage. Without a word, they broke into "Big Empty," and so began an hour-and-a-half of nothing but hits. Almost every song was a winner, and even though they played clunkers like "Sin" instead of fan favourites like "Meatplow," no one could complain about a set list that had nearly every song you could possibly want this band to play.

I can't deny that STP rocked the house. Scott Weiland may be the group's obvious focal point, but the real bad-ass rock 'n' rollers are Dean and Robert DeLeo. They exude an effortless cool that's far more entertaining than their singer's incessant posturing. Musically, Dean's fluid basslines and Robert's fuzzed-out riffs have carried the band throughout their career.

For his part, Weiland was on his A-game. His dances, which are still off-putting after all these years, seemed somewhat mechanical in comparison to the DeLeo brothers, but he was giving the people what they wanted.

That said, has anyone ever tried telling the guy to shut up? In between every song, the vocalist would drop some ludicrous line like, "We here in the band like to think we invented the sonic journey," or my personal favourite, "We're called STP, and I'm wearing my Beatles shoes to prove it." It makes people wonder what the guy was doing before hitting the stage.

After Stone Temple Pilots played an encore at a festival that they weren't closing, Linkin Park took the stage and played a bunch of songs to a rapidly dwindling audience. They were entertaining enough, but considering 75 per cent of the people were there to see STP, it was much too little and far too late.

Edgefest organizers: Stop getting one or two bands to anchor an entire festival and start looking for acts that people actually care about to make it worth standing in the rain all day.