American nu metal legends Payable on Death or as we have always known them – P.O.D. – from San Diego, California are on tour supporting their latest studio album Circles. They are touring with another nu metal band, Nonpoint from the state of Florida, joined by Islander who are also known to play similar musical style as to both heavyweights so we knew heading to the show that we were in for a good old school nu-metal time.
Highline Ballroom located in the heart of New York City right next to scenic Highline walkway, is not the biggest in size, but it makes for a much more intimate and louder setting for heavy music performances. To start things off for the evening the support bands provided nice insight into what we are about to witness for that night.
Nonpoint came out guns blazing, opening with their older hit “Victim” and following up with their newest single “Chaos and Earthquakes” from their latest album “X”. The bands founding member and vocalist Elias Soriano was livid and engaged, delivering lyrics powerfully touching off on social and political issues we are all living in. On stage he was joined by Robb Rivera, another founding member off the band (who also travels with popular kids tv show Sesame Street character Animal attached to his drumset).
Others on set included Adam Woloszyn on bass, Rasheed Thomas on rhythm guitar and charismatic B.C. Kochmit on lead guitar. The bands performance was flawless, and provided figuratively speaking, chaos and earthquakes in itself. Another notable song on the setlist was their first major label single “What a Day” from their third studio album “Statement”. They finished off with guns slinging by performing their most notable single “Bullet with a Name”.
With venue at capacity and crowd fully energized the stage now belonged to the nu metal legends P.O.D. and their set lasted a good hour and the half giving the fans full ride through the bands twenty six year long career. Their opener “Soundboy Killa” wasn’t even the hottest item at the beginning because it was followed by songs “Boom and Rocking” at their best. They gave us a glimpse of their new album and rocked all the hits from yesteryear including “Youth of the Nation”, “Satellite” and “Southtown”.
P.O.D. is one of the rare bands that kept their original lineup almost unchanged featuring founding members, vocalist Sonny Sandoval, lead guitarist Marcos Curiel and drummer Wuv Bernardo accompanied by bassist Traa Daniels who joined band one year later. Only Marcos left the band in 2003 just to return three years later. All guys still showed great chemistry and their performance was seamless.
For dessert they provided fan favorite “Alive” and capped off their performance with newest single off their latest album Circles called “Listening for the Silence”. Solid show overall for fans of P.O.D.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Andris Jansons
