Music

GRAND PRAIRIE – Bands are like fabric; one color usually dominates, while others appear here and there in the weave to give it character. In Stone Temple Pilots, singer Scott Weiland is the dominant color. The DeLeo brothers give the fabric heft and singularity. Drummer Eric Kretz is essentially hidden stitching.

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Guitarist Dean DeLeo and frontman Scott Weiland (pictured here in an April 7 photo) and the other Stone Temple Pilots guys have reunited. The tour made a stop at Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie on Sunday night.

But this fabric's out of fashion now: Its primary color fades easily, leaving the cloth plain and pretty much useless.

Stone Temple Pilots' reunion tour has been riddled with inconsistency; one night the band will leave fans breathless, the next it'll leave them frustrated. About 5,000 were handed the latter version at Nokia Theatre on Sunday.

First reason: Mr. Weiland's mindlessness and lack of verve. Though nattily dressed in a three-piece suit stolen from Rod Stewart's mod closet, he operated at about 85 percent of his normal speed. He hit notes fine but seldom projected them; he struck poses but rarely strung them together.

Hmmm. At one point, bassist Robert DeLeo interjected a happy-to-be-here wish to a ravenous crowd because Mr. Weiland was delayed in proferring his. Anyway ...

Second reason: an atrocious, bass drum-heavy mix that ruined lower-key numbers such as "Lady Picture Show" and "Plush" and took all the spunk out of Dean DeLeo's rhythm playing. Third: Songs such as "Vaseline" and "Creep" were slowed down (you see a trend developing, yes?), and not to allow the audience to keep up in singing along.

Genuine bright spots were fleeting during the 110-minute set; Dean DeLeo's always-assured and massively cool solo playing was among them. And what the band was in the 1990s – artsy, sly, slinky and infected with melodic venom – merged for one song: the angular, techno-tinged "Coma."

STP isn't in one of those yet, and there's still time for a harmonic and healthy recovery. But at least we know what color the burial shroud should be.