Stone Temple Pilots Cut Set Early in Milwaukee

Two days after Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland seemingly lost his balance and fell off stage during the band's March 24 set at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, things ended early for the band and its fans in Milwaukee on March 26, when the members of STP abandoned Weiland on stage mid-song.

A number of eyewitnesses reported that Weiland forgot the words to at least a couple of the songs in the band's set and seemed to forget the lyrics to 'Dead and Bloated,' apparently forcing the rest of STP to leave the stage.

Stone Temple Pilots fan site Below Empty served as a forum for fans, who described the night's events. One fan, who goes by the handle 'ejsme,' said that while Weiland "sounded really slurry and rambling when talking between songs, he actually did a great job for most of the show. It was excellent and thoroughly enjoyable. And the [brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo] didn't seem mad at him or anything. Dean actually came up and played his guitar with the neck stuck between Weiland's legs at one point.

"But ... once they got to 'Dead and Bloated,' partway in, Scott got completely lost and just seemed to forget the whole song, lyrics and melody," reports 'ejsme.' "They tried to kind of go into a little jammy part to cover until they could get their bearings, but it just kind [of] got more and more off track and Scott never seemed to be able to pick back up. So Dean walks off to the side and switches guitars and they go into 'Lounge Fly.' Dean walked up to Scott and took out his ear monitor and said something into his ear. Scott seemed to start off [OK], a little bit off, but then by the time they got to the acoustic section, he was behind the beat and sounded like a sloppy drunk guy singing at a wedding."

The rest of STP tried to follow Weiland's lead, but he was all over the place. "I saw Robert look at Dean and shake his head, as if to say, 'This isn't going to be salvageable' and then, finally, the Deleos took off their instruments and walked to the side of the stage. [Drummer Eric] Kretz kept drumming and Weiland seemed oblivious to the fact that there was no more guitar and bass. He [kept] kind of improvising on the melody and singing until Kretz played an ending-of-the-song kind of drum thing to try to signal to Scott to wrap it up, but he kept singing a bit after that. Then, Kretz got up and walked right past Scott without looking at him or touching him, and off the stage on the same side that the DeLeos went. Scott finally then walked off stage on the other side."

Eyewitnesses claim Weiland "seemed oblivious to the fact that he was messing up. It's like he kept right on dancing and posing and singing like he thought he was doing great. He never looked embarrassed or frustrated."