Live albums: often a heated topic of debate, they are commonly known to spawn two basic reactions (aren't many things like that in the world of that strange anomaly known to many human beings as music?): (1) adoration or (2) pure, relentless hatred. In the case of P.O.D.'s often overlooked live offering, which features 8 songs performed by the band in the summer of 1997, there's sort of a mediocrity to a large percentage of the album. Sure--you have the raw energy that the band never ceases to put forth. Lead vocalist Sonny Sandoval even provides some inspirational little messages between songs that actually might turn many people off the band. I got my hands on this re-mastered release a few years ago, and the truth is, I often ignore it. Why? Well, it's just...dated. It's no secret that some of P.O.D.'s old stuff is considered cool by the Warriors (P.O.D.'s fans) simply because it's P.O.D..

An attention-grabbing guitar riff courtesy of former P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel launches "One Day". The sound quality is actually pretty good, to be quite honest. The crowd cheers faintly, and Sonny's voice soon follows. Those partial to the band's heavier sound in which Sonny incorporates an infectious mix of rapping and screaming will surely have nothing negative to say about this one. "Draw The Line", written by House of Suffering, allows P.O.D. to do tons of audience interaction, which at some points can be downright annoying. Some audience chanting is forgivable, but this song just isn't impressive enough to compensate. "Who's gonna draw the line? WE'RE gonna draw the line," Sonny shouts (way, way too many times). Marcos really shreds it up a couple of minutes into the song, and it's one of the many instances when I listen to older P.O.D. stuff when I miss that guy sorely. "Selah", the easy highlight of the disc, is actually one of my favorite P.O.D. songs ever. With its catchy verses, insanely wonderful guitar riffs, and Sonny's strong vocals, the band executes everything wonderfully here; bassist Traa Daniels and drummer Noah "Wuv" Bernardo are superior to so, so many in their genre.

Although I'm quite fond of the studio version of "Know Me", something about it in concert apparently sucks. Maybe it was just a bad day. It gets annoying, and after a while, simply grates, what with its redundancy and the "Who am I? I'm just like you!" screams at the end. "Punk-Reggae Jam" begins with Sonny asking where some guy named Russell is. Distorted, faint guitars soon give way to an insanely fast-paced collage of heavy guitars and perfect drumming. But wait! Then, it winds down to a midtempo reggae beat and Sonny asking the crowd if it's okay that they "change it up a little bit". He speaks about positivity, etc. etc., almost getting--dare I say?--slightly annoying about it. "Breathe Babylon" is easily one of the most popular songs among hardcore P.O.D. fans, and it sounds really excellent live. It contains a guest appearance from Dirt from Shadow of the Locust. Pretty amazing song here, with thrashy guitar riffs out of this world and terrific vocals.

I sometimes wish that the song "Preach" lasted longer. It has interesting verses with thought-provoking, well-executed lyrics, but it just doesn't seem like it builds up to much. Nevertheless, it's a good song to sing along to. Sonny's voice is palpable with thick emotion when he insists, "If you ask me, boy, I think I don't preach ENOUGH!" This song has a very garage-rock feel to it. "Full Color" is probably the most personal song to Sonny, as it was written by Sonny about the 1992 loss of his mother to leukemia. Every emotion comes out in the live performance. Shortly after the song itself ends, Wuv's dad, Noah Bernardo Sr. begins talking about how he turned his life around when he converted to Christianity. After his little speech, there is a 'hidden' performance of the band's song "Murder", which adamantly speaks out against abortion. "There's nothing you can say or do...to justify the fact that there's a living, breathing soul inside of you!" Sonny exclaims.

P.O.D. Live is a nice token for huge fans of the band such as myself, but most other rock fans, or fans of any other genre for that matter, probably won't see anything particularly excellent about it. It's a fact that P.O.D. as a band has come a long, long way since then--not necessarily in terms of how talented they are at each individual instrument they play--but in terms of song structure and lyricism. There was a ton of redundancy back then, although it was blatantly obvious that they always knew how to put on one amazing live show.

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Recommended: Yes