Group Confirms Reunion Plans During Short Set

The reunited Stone Temple Pilots solidified its summer reunion tour plans last night (April 7) with a brief performance at the former estate of magician Harry Houdini, tucked away in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills.

The group's 30-minute set, its first since disbanding in 2002, featured modern rock radio staples such as "Big Empty," "Plush," "Interstate Love Song" and "Vaseline." Frontman Scott Weiland didn't say much, but he made one thing clear to the hundreds of radio contest winners, celebrities and music industry onlookers: "We're back and we're going on tour this summer."

As previously reported, STP will embark on a full-fledged summer amphitheater tour of North America, beginning with the Rock on the Range festival on May 17 at Columbus, Ohio's Columbus Crew Stadium. Live Nation will produce many dates on the upcoming 65-date trek. The group's last tour in 2002 grossed nearly $1.3 million from 13 concerts that drew approximately 42,000 concertgoers, according to Billboard Boxscore.

Among the handful of other STP dates already announced are May 23 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the Indy 500 and the 2008 Edgefest on July 12 in Toronto. Ahead of its summer jaunt, the band is launching a new Web site and official fan club that will give concertgoers access to pre-sale tickets, as well as VIP packages and premium seating.

Last night, STP also played "Lady Picture Show," "Big Bang Baby" and "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart." Weiland said the concert's setting at the Harry Houdini Estate had special meaning to the band.

"We shot our video for 'Creep' here in the early '90s -- yeah, we're old," the singer joked, noting that the Gus Van Sant-produced clip never saw the light of day. "It looked like an Obsession commercial, which is cool, but it wasn't what we wanted to portray."

Last night's tour announcement arrived a week after Velvet Revolver founding members Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner released a statement saying Weiland was out of the band. The singer responded to the move via a venom-filled statement of his own. Velvet Revolver's last concert with Weiland was April 1 at Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. A new singer has not yet been named, despite Weiland's suggestion that "Sebastian Bach would be a fantastic choice."

It's still unclear whether or not the reunited STP -- Weiland, guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz -- will record new material. The band's last album was 2001's "Shangri-La Dee Da," which has shifted 364,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.