"Expect to be impressed with the way these well-recorded, beer-saturated club cuts capture the late Brad Nowell's endearing jerk charm and the band's stage power." — Entertainment Weekly
A little over two years after Bradley Nowell's tragic death, Sublime released its second posthumous album, Stand by Your Van. Sublime never had the chance to tour the material from their third record, Sublime, which turned out to be their most popular album. That means that all 16 live tracks on Stand by Your Van are taken from their first two albums, before Nowell's songwriting had truly come into its own.
Nevertheless, he had several good songs on 40 Oz. to Freedom and Robbin' the Hood, and by consolidating the best moments from those two relatively uneven albums, the live record offers something of a "greatest hits" of their early years. Writes AllMusic, "If the performances aren't that different from the studio versions — they're simply a little rawer, a little faster, a little looser — they're still strong and energetic, capturing the essence of the group's live show.
