they're excellent live
i think the reason they stay so fresh and different is because they're not american. all the bands over here like to go with flow you know? most of em dont change, even the great ones like Linkin Park, i mean lets face it, they've found a winning formula and pretty much stuck to it. SOAD are almost as good as Static X. Almost.
seen them live in tampa last year , what a letdown , they had not form of interaction with the public , no form of comments beetween song ( which would be expected relating to politics and such from that type of band ) and most of the ticket where sitting tickets , tickets for the mosh pit where sold out ( going to a rock concert to be seated , that's pathetic and having different tickets for the moshipit was at the limit of a scam )
they sound good in studio nut they absolutely suck live
sad really but not different to so many bands playing , just doing the minimum to satisfy the hardcore fans who could forgive anything anyway and cash in the money