if you sort through the tour dates over 1996-1997, you can see their marketing direction change.

they were initially playing shows with punk-ish alt rock bands like filter, garbage, rancid, the offspring, the foofighters, etc.

then, they went on tour opening for metallica.

after that, they toured with limp bizkit and started doing shows with other bands of that sort.

again: they were signed to sony, they weren't indie rock. but, up until the metallica tour,  they were seen as a type of industrial band, with strong affinities with punk rock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Peachy#Tour_dates