LONDON, Ont. - Sometimes, Stone Temple Pilots taxied at the John Labatt Centre last night.

Sometimes, STP took off.

For whatever reason, STP was slow to the stage by 20 minutes and then played a short 85-minute show.

The recently reunited U.S. rockers were fronted by the twisting the night away enigma Scott Weiland, who was fronted occasionally by his bullhorn.

It took a song or two before the STP flow took over.

It was still flowing about 10 p.m., when the encore, after an abrupt end to the main set, reached Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart.

Weiland and his bandmates rocked their way to a finale of big, happy bows.

When STP took off, as it did on late-set blasts such as Interstate Love Song and Down, last night felt like a hot rock show.

There were about 4,800 fans at the London arena. That crowd still left plenty of empty seats to greet the band even in the arena's slimmed-down format.

"We are STP," Weiland said to cheers after mumbled greetings from guitarist Dean DeLeo about it being "mighty fine" to be here.

Weiland was looking sharp in a tight jacket and pants, charcoal to set off the grey tie. It made for a Mad Men meet the Jam touch, and fit right in with the twitch dancing he used all night.

Weiland, DeLeo and his brother, Robert DeLeo, and drummer Eric Kretz finally started to run STP hot and smooth on Big Empty.

There had already been some classic twisting the night away on the monitors from Weiland and a back-to-back pose with DeLeo as STP blazed away. Late in the show, the two bumped affectionately. Can anyone figure out if DeLeo was lost at the edge of the stage at the main set finale? He certainly looked shocked in a happy way as things ended behind him.

Weiland lost the jacket before the hour mark, looking even cooler in a white shirt. He kept spinning and twisting and sharing a few words as STP roared on down the empty highways -- of the soul? the future? -- that haunted the big screen every now and then.

Stone Temple Pilots emerged in the 1990s as the U.S. rock band that critics loved to hate for turning alt-rock into arena rock.