 Down with "System" (Click Here to see photos of the show from the Troubadour |
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| System of a Down played Hollywood for three nights in December to sell out crowds. Three famous Hollywood venues - the Whisky, the Roxy, and the Troubadour - all played host to the most hyped gigs to ever grace the stages of those local clubs. If you did not have a ticket, it was unlikely you could beg, borrow, or talk your way in. The Troubadour even had a message on the answering machine, "The house guest list is closed, so don’t even ask!" That pretty much sums up how hot those shows were. Until recently, System of a Down boasted an extremely large underground following. The number of fans seems to be growing rapidly.
The Whisky Wednesday, December 1, 1999: System’s first of the three Hollywood shows. Within 100 yards of the club, there was excitement everywhere. Kids were lining up to enter the tiny club. One girl in line was overheard telling her friend how her mom was going to ground her and this was the last concert she could go to for a long time. She lamented, saying that she was fine because System was the only band she really wanted to see! That’s exactly the kind of power this band has over their fans.
The Whisky’s small house filled quickly early in the evening, so a good part of the audience was able to catch the two opening bands, Slaves on Dope and the Apex Theory. Both bands did a great job and pulled off excellent sets. No offense to either band, the Scene proudly supports Slaves on Dope, and Apex Theory gets filed under the bands-to-see-again category, but no bones about it, the Scene was there for the same reason as everyone else that night - "SOAD." The room was also filled with some all-stars that evening, M.C.U.D. from (hed)pe, Logan Mader from Medication (who’s previous bands were Soulfly and Machine Head), and Wayne Static of Static-X were just a few of the stars in the house.
The four members of System came onto the stage. As always, the crowd near the front of the stage began to constrict as the band come out and went into their first song. Suddenly everybody in the room thrust forward as John started to pound out the first beats of "Know" on his drums. It felt like the crowd was near hysteria right from the start. Serj opened his mouth and brought forth the cry…"Cursed Earth…" His screams fell upon welcoming ears. Serj, looking and dressing like a mixture of madman, priest, poet, and prophet - wearing his long black robe, wild curly locks of hair framing his face painted with symbols - was everything you wanted him to be that night; charismatic, wild, and using his God-given talent for truly unique vocals.
This band is such a rush to watch. The four of them exude a quality that, simply said, is humbling. The strength and beauty of the songs, and the level at which they perform them is awesome. Never mind that they are excellent musicians, and that they bring influences to heavy music that have never been heard before. When you stop to think a minute that this is also a band that stands for something, the intensity of the experience can really blow your mind! Part of the time you are just tripping out watching them, as Shavo stares out with intensity and Daron almost manages to kill you with his guitar while flailing wildly on stage, and the rest of the time you find yourself pondering their very potent political messages.
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SOAD played the 16 songs for their deeply devoted followers, and played all of them well! The songs were only interrupted a couple of times while they stopped to talk politics, as usual. If you know this band, then you weren’t expecting them to talk about anything but! Serj even stopped to talk about the riots in Seattle that were happening that week. Mostly what they did that night was really f**k things up on stage. They couldn’t have been any better. They played most of the songs on the album while most everyone in the room sang alone. They did throw in two songs that are not on the CD; a song called "Temper" and "Chicken Stu" which is hella funny! Towards the end of the set Serj spoke a little bit about the "war on drugs," then they went into "Peephole" as someone came out onto the stage and gave them each a hit off the pipe. They ended the set with "War" and invited all the girls to join them on stage.
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Photos by Caren Spitler |
