Veteran San Diego-based nu-metal pioneers P.O.D. are bringing the boom on their tour with Jinjer by breaking out some of the heavier jams, according to vocalist Sonny Sandoval.
“We can play with the heaviest bands tonight and then tomorrow we can play with a reggae band or a Dave Matthews Band cover band since we don’t just have heavy songs and we love all kinds of music,” Sandoval says. “Since we’re out with Jinjer, We thought ‘maybe we should do our heaviest set?’”
Though most of the band’s set list so far on the jaunt has been culled from the riff-heavy tunes on its breakthrough album, 2001’s “Satellite,” P.O.D. does plan to mix in soulful tunes to appease its faithful fanbase.
“We get that not everybody just wants a heavy set and they like the flavor that we put into the soulful stuff that we do, so we try to mix it up,” Sandoval says.
Among those selections is the anti-gun violence anthem “Youth of the Nation” — a tune that Sandoval admits remains too relevant.
“We don’t want it to be relevant 21 years later,” he says.
“We were hoping that things would have changed and over the past 21 years, but it still resonates with people. When we hear the stories every night about ‘I remember this, and I remember that,’ it’s still heartbreaking.”
Though the tune prompts heartbreaking memories and stories for the band and its fans, Sandoval says he believes it reminds of the violence still happening around the nation.
“We play it as more of a reminder that this is still going on,” he says. “We still have gun issues to deal with, we still have violence and we still have mental illnesses and that’s why we started this thing in music.
“We wanted to make people think and to make people feel things. So, that song always gets a crazy reaction. This tour has been more of a vibe where we’ve just started playing it and then the music alone causes a reaction that I can see in people’s eyes.”
Though “Youth of the Nation” is often a somber moment in an otherwise energetic set list, Sandoval says the jaunt will include “Boom,” which is usually the band’s opening track.
“We have so many other fun songs that people know ‘Boom’ which has been in movies, video games and was even played during the World Series,” Sandoval says emphatically. “I guess it just comes from being around so long. Your music gets heard one way or another.”
Though the set list generally begins with “Boom” and reaches an energetic nadir with “Youth of the Nation” in the middle, the rest of the show has dynamic tunes like the new song “Drop.” It will appear on a new album set for release early next year by P.O.D., which stands for payable on death.
“It’s heavy and it’s been getting a great response,” Sandoval says. “It’s always cool to play the new stuff and if it was up to us, we’d be playing a few of those songs. But we only get 50 minutes (on stage).”
Still, the show changes nightly, but the closing number is the same.
“About 99.9% of the time, we are going to end the set with ‘Alive’ because it just leaves people feeling they went through a journey, we had fun together through the ups and downs, and now we’re going to end it off with just gratefulness and excitement with each other,” he says.
Jinjer and P.O.D. w/Malevolence and Space of Variations
WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, December 20
WHERE: The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren Street, Phoenix
COST: Tickets start at $37
INFO: payableondeath.com and thevanburenphx.com
