Haute Spot, Cedar Park, Texas
January 29, 2022
Photography by Michael Mullinex
Saturday January 29th, Cedar Park’s Haute Spot cued up the spotlight for Metal band POD and launched of a season of Rock in Central Texas. As the lights came down, the recognizable guitar hiss of the band’s title track from their 2001 album, Satellite, set the tone for the wild night to come. Singer Sonny Sandoval’s voice fluctuated from the hip-hop infused verses to the ringing, anthemic chorus where he never missed his chance to use the stage extension to come closer to his audience. Payable On Death is the people’s Metal band, not only accessible to all Rock fans but also showing a lot of heart to fans and making headbangers in the back of the crowd feel like a vital part of the evening. During the song Boom, Sonny noticed one audience member’s sign that asked to please let him play drums for that specific song. To everyone’s surprise, he actually brought the lucky fan onstage to have him jam out his song of choice. Later on when one fan jumped the fence and got onstage during the song Set It Off to take a selfie with them, the band came to his defense and called out to security “He’s cool, don’t worry about him.” Moments like this were brief, but reinforced a certain attitude by its members that they were grateful to have such energy and zeal for their music. As the set went on the more recognizable hits like Murdered Love, South Town, Youth Of A Nation, and Roots In Stereo started coming in rapid fire. With the audience chanting for an encore, the band came back one last time and were met with a frenzied roar of approval for the songs Alive and The Awakening.
