That’s not to ignore the fact that the Pilots were the most-accomplished band on the bill. It’s just hard to get past that they shouldn’t have been on the bill in the first place.

The crowd, which had moshed and rocked and sang along with the earlier acts, showed the type of enthusiasm normally reserved for school assemblies once STP took the stage. The best that can be said is that the audience was polite. More likely, it was bored.

Guest appearances by guys from Linkin Park and Staind [ tickets ] did little to help STP's set, and the big hits like "Creep" and "Big Empty" were ignored with the same level of indifference as new material such as "Hollywood Bitch."

The crowd didn’t even really react when singer Scott Weiland got naked, wrapped an American flag around his waist and lectured the youngsters in the importance of freedom.

Imagine that.

The people’s choice for headliner would have been Linkin Park. Besides the two-vocalist approach, Linkin Park doesn’t really add anything new to this increasingly tired genre--the group isn’t reinventing the wheel so much as it is making the entire car more fun to drive. With singer Chester Bennington and rapper Mike Shinoda mixing it up on sledgehammer songs like "Crawling" and "Papercut," Linkin Park showed once again that it is the best young rap-metal band in the industry, and is one of the only acts in this genre that appears worth watching in the long term.

Staind followed Linkin Park and simply couldn’t keep the energy level up. To put it bluntly, singer Aaron Lewis is perhaps the most boring frontman in the business. He moves about the stage with excruciating care, like he’s walking on rice paper. Occasionally, he will bend at the waist and look at his shoes. Sometimes, he will tilt his head back and look at the ceiling.

The Family Values Tour has lost its edge. And, if organizers aren’t careful, it will lose its audience as well.

Too band more parents weren’t in the house.