Stone Temple Pilots / Rival Sons / Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown
September 25, 2019
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, IL
Review by Margo Machnik
Photos by Margo Machnik
Rock And Roll Hits Hard At The Aragon Ballroom!
The night started out with the Nashville foursome, Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown, a high energy, youthful rock band. I had not heard their music, so did not know what to expect but they came on strong, with a tight sound and a lot of charisma. The band consist of Tyler Bryant lead guitar and vocals, Caleb Crosby on drums, Graham Whitford on rhythm and Noah Denney on bass. For an opening band who many fans didn't know their songs, the crowd was fully engaged for their entire set. Tyler Bryant is truly a star in the making!
Next, the thumping started, which means goose bumps for all Rival Sons fans as Mike Miley’s begins pounding drums and we knew it was “Back in the Woods” to start the show. The crowd was totally grooving. What was funny to me, stage left was filled with Rival Sons fans and stage right were a lot of STP fans as noted by their shirts but everyone was there to love on Rival Sons. What can I say? They are amazing! To me, Rival Sons are the saviors of rock-n-roll!
Guitarist, Scott Holiday, my fuzz loving guitar God, was as cool as ever in a silver jacket with black and sliver leopard print and of course his signature dark sun glasses. He makes his guitar playing look so effortless.
Jay, “The Preacher” Buchanan’s sermon tonight was on forgiveness “you’ve got to learn to forgive yourself” as he gave many examples of different people that made mistakes in life and needed to forgive themselves before launching.
Into “Where I’ve been” which then led to “Face Of Light” and all of a sudden, Jay was just gone. He was a Shaman at that point. The song just went on and on and got so intense but it turned out to be my favorite moment of the show. The 12 song night ended with the crowd sing along favorite “Shooting Stars” and then “Do Your Worst”. The set was wild, sexy polished and pure rock-n-roll.
Onto the headliners, Stone Temple Pilots, where new singer Jeff Gutt immediately owned the stage. Young, energetic and acrobatic, was just what this seasoned band needed. He took command of the audience from the moment he took the stage and I notice right off, he didn’t try to sound like Scott Weiland but some fans around me said he tried to act like him.
I never saw STP in their hey day and cannot even imagine Scott Weiland every having this much intensity. The 3rd song was “Vasoline” and Jeff Gutt jumped into a very crowded photo pit and freaked out all of the photographers. The pit at the Aragon is T shaped and he made use of every inch of the space, climbing on the shelves and singing right in the faces of the fans. It was quite incredible. Jeff is a fantastic performer and could be the main reason this band has resurrected so well. Founding members and brothers, Rob and Dean Deleo still bring it as the band played a mix of new and old songs, but by far, the new ones were more authentic and fresh with Jeff on vocals.
As a surprised, STP invited Graham Whitford, Tyler Bryant’s rhythm guitarist, son of Aerosmith legend, Brad Whitford, to joint them on stage for an end jam. Another great night of rock and roll! Catch this tour if you can, it truly is one of the best rock shows on the road!
