MTV’s Unplugged series was a real test for the musicians of that era. Sure, you sound huge wired up to stacks of amps with distortion and effects stacked on top of each other. But can you do it in a small room, up close to the audience, without all the gear to hide behind? Stripped naked of the electricity. Just the songs, the voices, and whatever you could pull out of an acoustic guitar and bongos. The Stone Temple Pilots walked into that room in 1993 and passed the test. Scott Weiland sat in a rocking chair like he owned the place. No theatrics, no wall of sound to lean on. Just the band and the material. “Plush,” “Creep,” “Wicked Garden,” and the first public airing of “Big Empty.” It held up. The songs didn’t need the volume to work. That was the point of the whole series. Some bands just got quieter. The ones that mattered found a different kind of power when everything else was taken away. “Plush” STP