P.O.D. and Alien Ant Farm, O2 Institute, Birmingham - review

And two bands showed how differently music can age.

Supported by ’68, Alien Ant Farm and P.O.D. were performing one of these modern phenomenons – the joint tour.

There seemed to be quite a few in for AAF, but they can’t have been too impressed by what was in front of them.

While P.O.D. still carry so much gravitas and feeling, AAF just felt like they were completing a job. They chugged through their set with little excitement, and when they did try and act up it just came across like some uncles who never grew up, performing for the younger members of the family.

They haven’t aged well.

They finished with their famous cover of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal, which we thought was pretty brave given the current Channel 4 controversy. Yet even this didn’t lift them much above mundane.

The sound guys must have felt the large indifference for AAF, particularly further back. So before P.O.D. took to the stage they whipped the PA up full blast and the whole room united for a mass sing-along to Linkin’ Park’s In The End.

It worked, so when Sonny Sandoval and the gang – minus drummer Wuv Bernardo who is sitting this tour out – hit the stage the appetites were whetted.

They started with that superhit Boom. An extended intro built on the hard work of the In The End crowd rally and by the time Sonny had issued his first guttural scream the crowd were theirs.

When we last saw P.O.D. nearly six years ago in the rain-drenched fields of Download, they went so heavy their bass kept popping the speakers out and causing momentary silences in the set. This was the opposite. Apart from Sonny’s mic everything seemed a tad hushed, like the band were far away.

Luckily, throughout the night the techies rectified this so we were left with a beautifully crafted finale.

Rock The Party (Off The Hook) built on Boom’s energy. The natural booze-athon swagger of this song lends itself to such an atmosphere and cups of who knows what flung from side to side, salivating down onto the headbanging revellers below.

The bass from Traa Daniels for Panic Attack was spine-thumping, and stand-in sticksman Jonny Beats earned his corn throughout Lost In Forever.

READ MORE: P.O.D., Circles - album review

Sonny is a terrific frontman. He controls us like the most rudeboy of conductors. That trademark cap bounces around the stage as he leaps, punches the air around him and thunders into his raps like a kid who has been told he can have one last scoop of ice-cream so he best enjoy it.

Always Southern California with its sun-kissed chorus, off new record Circles out last year, was a brief respite from the aggression to the set, and then they showed their hits still have it with the final flourish.

Satellite brought a room-wide dose of karaoke again, and when that bass intro to Southtown emanated across us the gleeful reaction meant you’d be forgiven for thinking somebody had opened the doors to a Securicor van and left them gaping stage-left.

The excitement kept growing, and it peaked for Youth Of The Nation, where Sonny's dreadlocked 11-year-old son Justice joined Jonny on the drum kit to provide the extra power to what is an emotive tune. It worked, and we even went stadium pop for a moment with swaying arms.

Alive cranked the pit up again to tire even the most sprightly of young moshers - it spread almost from bar to bar in the that ornate main Institute room.

Their fans clearly haven’t forgotten them. And unlike AAF before them, P.O.D. showed they hadn’t forgotten how to entertain their fans.