It was a night of two of the best albums that the 90’s had to offer. It was also a night of some of the best live music that 2024 has to offer.  In what is being billed as the Jubilee Tour, co-headliners +LIVE+ and Stone Temple Pilots took over the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, CA, on August 18^th for a 30^th anniversary celebration of two multi-million selling albums, +LIVE+’s Throwing Copper, and Stone Temple Pilots Purple.  The concert was just the second night of the tour, but these are veteran bands and there wasn’t any rust to be found in either performance. As co-headliners, each band did a complete set with +LIVE+ taking the first slot for this show.

Founding member and lead vocalist Ed Kowalczyk, along with lead guitarist Zak Loy, bassist Chris Heerlein, and drummer Johnny Radelat took the stage and delivered everything the audience hoped for and more. While there were plenty of puns to be heard, “Wow. LIVE is great live!” the best humor comes from a place of truth. The band was great. Passionate vocals from Kowalcyzk, (ably backed by Loy and Heerlein), and great guitar work by Loy brought all of +LIVE+’s hits to life.

While this is the 30^th anniversary of Throwing Copper and a majority of the set list came from the album, the band also included hits like “The Dolphin's Cry" from The Distance to Here. But it wasn’t just a retrospective for the Kowalczyk. The band played their new song, “Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’)”, which on the album features Stone Temple Pilots Dean DeLeo joining on guitar. (DeLeo did not join +LIVE+ on stage for this performance.)

Then it was time for the theater to turn purple. STP was there to mark the 30^th anniversary of their sophomore album, Purple, by playing it in its entirety. The opposite of +LIVE+, where the lead singer is the only original member, Stone Temple Pilots features founding members Dean DeLeo on guitar, brother Robert DeLeo on bass, and Eric Kretz on drums. Over the years, Purple has made many lists as being a defining album of the 90’s as well as top rock album in general.

The band played the songs as tracked on the album, leading off with “Meatplow.” A few treats were thrown in along the way. Steve Ferrone of Average White Band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sat in on drums on “Interstate Love Song.” Later after finishing off Purple with “Kitchenware & Candybars”, Kenneth Pattengale of The Milk Carton Kids joined on guitar for “Plush.” The evening came to a rousing end with the epic closer, “Sex Type Thing” leaving the entire audience worn out and energized at the same time.

Dean DeLeo was spot on sonically the entire night with crunchy riffs and soaring solos. Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz were the combination engine that drove the music to places passionate and powerful, but yet incredibly mesmerizing like the acoustic “Pretty Penny.”

Here’s the moment to talk about STP lead singer, Jeff Gutt. The guy can sing. The guy can perform. It’s a tough job to take over for one of the most iconic frontmen of all time, (two actually). But Gutt totally rises to the challenge. One thing to remember, he’s now been in the band for seven years. But since this was a celebration of Purple, the band didn’t play any of their material recorded with Gutt. But check out the two albums recorded with him. They are worth a listen.

The opening act was Our Lady Peace. They hail from Canada and are another band that got started in the 90’s. The current lineup of Raine Maida on lead vocals, Duncan Coutts on bass, Steve Mazur on guitar, and Jason Pierce on drums showed they were a great choice to start the evening. (Special note: Our Lady Peace only opened the first two shows of the tour. The remainder of the dates will feature Soul Asylum.)