HARLEM — You'll never guess who is getting feted in Harlem.
A local artist is hosting a Scott Weiland tribute night, "Do We All Just Hum Along," in honor of the deceased front man of the Stone Temple Pilots.
“It’s unlikely that an event such as this would take place in Harlem, but I searched high and low to see if any of the downtown rock clubs were doing anything and found nothing,” said Omo Misha.
On January 12 starting at 7 p.m. music and videos from Weiland's bands will stream on TV's throughout MIST Harlem, an STP cover band will play classic ballads, and Misha will paint a portrait featuring favorite lyrics that anyone in the crowd wants to contribute.
It won't be the first Weiland portrait Misha has created.
Two months ago Misha included a 40-inch by 50-inch oil painting of him for an exhibit about influential people at MIST Harlem. The venue offered her to host an art exhibit but, after learning about his passing, she decided to dedicate the night to him, she said.
The night will end in a "Plush" sing-along, she added.
Misha grew up in the late 1970's in Detroit listening to both Motown stars like the Supremes and Aretha Franklin as well as rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Cream. She stopped listening to rock in the 1980’s.
“In the 80’s rock got really weird and a lot of people kind of tuned out,” she said.
It wasn’t until the 90’s with a advent of grunge that she got back into the genre. Her favorite group was Stone Temple Pilots, in large part because of Weiland. He is what differentiated them from other groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, she said.
"Their front man was particularly exciting, not just to watch but his vocal range and vocal styling his fashion, his dancing,” she said. “Really for me he — out of all those groups that came out that time — he was the only front man I actually looked at because he made you look at him."
Still, Misha is not a hard-core fan.
She never saw the Stone Temple Pilots perform live. But she admired the performer because of his longevity. He kept reinventing himself with new sounds, new bands, and new art, she said.
The artist didn’t find out about Weiland’s death until someone asked her about the price of her portrait, she said.
“Somebody contacted me by email and asked if I was going to go up on the price of the painting now that he passed,” she said.
It hasn’t.
After learning of his passing, she searched the Internet to find out if any clubs were having a tribute night. When she didn't find one, she made her own and invited all fans to pay tribute in Harlem.
