I find your clothing observations very funny. True, Tom Morello seems a bit dorky, but neither the drummer nor the bass players seemed out of place at all... In fact, I always found it awesome that they didn't seem to care about their image/outfits/cutsiness - they are there to rock the joint and most of the time they do. No need for ass shaking, tight pants, and designer shirts. I love them for that Even Chris, who would still be hot as hell if he wore a potato sack, isn't much into his looks. The feel I get from the audience is that they don't care either - they want sound, not pretty boys shaking asses. Unlike the band you referred to

Like Alex, I found Chris to be an exceptional frontman and I don't think he stood still for more than two seconds - his interaction with the audience is like nobody elses, plus it is original. Green Day have a great audience interaction, but all their shows are the same, almost down to what they say to the audience. Just for comparison purposes, I thought JBJ should go and see a few AS shows to get the hint and realize he isn't even half as good as he believes he is. It must be the shows we've seen.

As for the sound. The last show I've seen was in a venue where the sound is notoriously bad, but I was surprised to see AS pulling off a pretty good sound. However, if I don't know the songs, I pretty much never get the words to them during a concert - except for a Joe Cocker concert maybe. The rest just sings too fast...

Anyway, I am glad you are going to check out their studio stuff - it's well worth it.