P.O.D. | Gen-X Tour
Cedar Park, TX
August 22, 2018
The Gen-X Summer Tour rolled into the Austin, Texas, area last week and it was a blast from the past. It wasn’t that long ago, it seems, when bands like Alien Ant Farm, Lit, P.O.D. and Buckcherry dominated the airwaves on alternative radio, making it seem like the youth of our nation would stay forever young and energetic. Fast-forward 17 years or so and you’ve got an arena half-full of thirty-somethings rocking at maybe 75% of that energy level. You can’t blame the bands, though, they were bringing the tunes like it was their job or something.
Alien Ant Farm ended their ball-rollin’ opening set with their big radio hit, “Smooth Criminal,” while Lit started theirs with a cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl.” They closed their set with a bookend mix of “My Own Worst Enemy” that segued out to a cover of The Cars’ “Just What I Needed” and back in again.
After a short set change, P.O.D. came out and upped the energy and sonic levels several notches by launching into “Boom,” giving the air a metallic bite with tougher riffs. They continued their triple shot of The Fundamental Elements of Southtown without skipping a beat and going into “Rock the Party” (Off the Hook) and then “Southtown.” It wasn’t time to sit back and relive the hits, it was time to move around, which the band demonstrated with vigor. Especially off the hook was frontman Sonny Sandoval, who whipped his microphone wire around like he was killing bugs or something.
They continued feeding the audience energy and threw in last summer’s tongue-in-cheek single, “Soundboy Killa,” with playful lyrics sometimes pointing at themselves. The band finished up with more familiar tunes, “Youth of a Nation” and “Alive.” During “Youth of a Nation,” Sonny’s son accompanied Noah “Wuv” Bernardo Jr. on the big drums. Sonny told the audience that they believed in a God of love and encouraged the audience to love one another. Like always, the band’s music was powerful enough to build a stage and a pulpit to deliver a positive message like that and be heard. As “Alive” winded down, with big audience sing-alongs, Sonny’s son came back out and danced and swirled around the stage, shaking his long dreads just like his dad used to do.
It was a fast and furious 50-minute set that seemed to fly by, but fun travels quickly with a good soundtrack and these men brought it.
I would’ve stayed for the frenetic raw rock of Buckcherry, but this old man had some tweeners who had school the next day, so we outta there.
—Photos and review by Doug Van Pelt
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