"The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show" features live renditions of songs from the band's first three albums: "Cheshire Cat", "Dude Ranch", and "Enema of the State". It leans heavily on the contents of the latter, as the band were touring in support of it at the time. "We played the songs at lightning speed, and the dick jokes were at an all-time high. It was a perfect representation of what we sounded like and who we were at that time," Barker has recalled. The band's songs commonly focus on autobiographical lyrical subjects such as relationships, and adolescent themes like high school and teen angst. Greg Kot at the "Chicago Tribune" perceived an "undercurrent of seriousness and an attention to songcraft that might not be instantly apparent beneath the prankster veneer."