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For nations that see eye to eye on so many issues, the USA and Great Britain are usually more than an ocean’s breadth apart in terms of musical tastes. Us Brits can only look on in bemusement as the US album chart sees the likes of Creed, Linkin Park, Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, System of a Down and P.O.D. sit incongruously alongside country music, gangsta rap and worship albums. Presumably the feeling is mutual as the charts here are dominated by toothless and frankly pointless pop acts, and any rock band that gets a look is usually just a blip on an otherwise mundane musical landscape.

It was surely with this thought in mind that P.O.D. was originally booked to play this one-off gig at the London Garage, a venue whose name speaks for itself both in terms of size and degree of salubrity. Except that somebody somewhere under-estimated P.O.D.’s potential popularity because the gig was sold out weeks in advance and the weeks following it have seen P.O.D. performing on British breakfast and mainstream music TV programmes; the latest album “Satellite” and single “Alive” both going Top 20; the band appearing on the front cover of our main rock magazine, Kerrang, and even being interviewed in the biggest selling broadsheet (read serious) newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. 

P.O.D. has thus joined the list of British chart anomalies. But then what else could we expect from a band whose reggae and dub-inflected take on the rap/metal genre and spiritual beliefs have marked them out as different (“outcasts”) for 10 years. As if to emphasis this otherness, tonight, P.O.D. proves that it’s not just on records like “Satellite” that it kicks most other bands into orbit. They launch themselves with “Set It Off”, which to these ears is a candidate for one of the best opening tracks of an album ever, and one that seems tailor-made for Garage- and arena-sized mosh-pits alike. From there on there is little let-up in the adrenaline levels as the band dispenses with its more pensive numbers and instead rips through the likes of “Hollywood,” “Southtown,” “Lie Down,” “Boom,” and “The Messenjah” from its last two opuses and “School of Hard Knocks” from the “Little Nicky” soundtrack. 

In between songs, Sonny and company seem genuinely amazed at the crowd’s fervent reaction, and they openly express their disbelief when some people noisily request “Snuff the Punk” from their hitherto little-known 1992 debut. The most poignant moment of the evening comes towards the end of the gig when Sonny spots someone trying to pass him something through the melee of bodies. He passes the microphone over and the crowd member explains that it is a pendant with a picture of a relative who had died recently. Sonny dedicates what would have been the encore to them, lumps rise in everyone’s throats and then the place erupts as P.O.D. triumphantly signs-off with emotion-charged versions of “Alive” and “Rock the Party”. Now that’s not something you often see at your average metal gig…

Two months ago P.O.D. was virtually unheard of on these shores. With this gig and the recent blaze of media publicity that situation has resolutely changed, a fact that simply underlines the fact that this is a band who are more than conquerors. Whose side are you on?