Stone Temple Pilots’ Album-spanning 2001 Performance ‘Live at Rolling Rock’ Gets Vinyl Release for Record Store Day 2026 (ALBUM REVIEW)

By 2001, Stone Temple Pilots were in a different place than their early ’90s peak. Shangri-La Dee Da had just come out, and instead of chasing the heavier sound of Core or Purple, the band leaned into something looser and more varied. Live at Rolling Rock pulls from across their catalog, and you can hear how those different eras sit together on stage. Never before released, this live album is being released on 2xLP Canary Yellow vinyl by Rhino Records for Record Store Day 2026.

STP opens with “Coma,” one of the newer tracks from Shangri-La Dee Da, and the live version sounds even harder than the studio version. That transitions into “Vasoline” from Purple, where the band locks into that familiar off-kilter groove and Dean DeLeo’s guitar has a sharp, almost jittery feel. “Meatplow,” going back to Core, is heavier and more aggressive, with Eric Kretz pushing the tempo a bit harder than on the album. “Big Empty,” originally from Purple (and The Crow soundtrack), slows things down, while “Piece of Pie” delivers a rawer, more stripped-down feel than its studio take. Both “Sour Girl” from No. 4 and “Creep” from Core get rid of their studio polish and feel heavier, with Weiland really leaning into the vocal phrasing. “Days of the Week,” pulled from Shangri-La Dee Da, fits naturally into the set as a straightforward rock song.

The second LP starts with “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” from Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sounds looser and less compressed than the album version, giving the sense that the band is really enjoying themselves. “Long Way Home” and “Hollywood Bitch,” both from Shangri-La Dee Da, highlight the band’s late-era shift toward cleaner, more polished rock songs. “Interstate Love Song,” another Purple tune, and “Plush,” from Core, are played pretty straight, letting the melody carry without much embellishment. “Down,” from No. 4, is indicative of the transition from earlier material to later, sitting somewhere between their heavier and more melodic sides. The encore starts with “Dead and Bloated,” from Core, which brings back the darker, sludgier feel of their debut, with a thicker guitar tone. The set closes with a jazzy jammed intro into “Sex Type Thing,” and it’s easily the rawest performance here; fast, loud, and a little unpolished.

As a live album, Live At Rolling Rock 2001 is the next best thing to seeing STP at their peak. The mix is a bit uneven, and you can hear the crowd throughout, but that helps it stand out from those live albums where you can’t hear the crowd at all, and the band might as well have just recorded in a studio. What stands out most is how the songs from Core, Purple, Tiny Music, No. 4, and Shangri-La Dee Da all sit together without feeling disconnected. It’s a reminder that by this point, Stone Temple Pilots weren’t just tied to a dark, grunge sound, and they could move seamlessly between phases of their catalog.