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A malevolent blue light emanated from a large screen behind the Stone Temple Pilots. It engulfed the performers, the stage and the audience. The screen would occasionally shift to car chases, a swirl optical illusion and cloudy skies, but most of the time it simply blinded the audience, and perhaps exacerbated a latent dementia in them.

My photographer was the first to catch the brunt of the crowd’s manic psychosis. “You take your damned camera and get behind the fucking line!” A Napoleonic man in a black baseball cap appeared ready to charge. I’ll never forget the terror and fear in his eyes. He had spent nearly two week’s pay for this moment. My Canadian photographer sure wasn’t going to ruin it for him.

The Greek Theatre is a very nice venue. It is made from rock and there is an impressive view of Sather tower against the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay. The acoustics were above average, and the place was near capacity. The only flaw was the malevolent indigo blotch, which limited the quality of my photographer’s pictures.

In the midst of the four dollar sodas and a potentially volatile audience, I managed to get caught up in the melodic waves of The Stone Temple Pilots. They played hits like Plush and Sour Girl. The band didn’t perform any new songs because they plan to hit the studio after this re-acclimation tour, which finishes August 31. For high resolution pictures from the 7/25 performance of STP from the Greek Theatre at the University of California, Berkeley, visit http://www.myspace.com/bayareashows.

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