|
Setting the mood's important in every facet of life. In rock concerts, that's crucial. On Wednesday night at the Office Depot Center, System of a Down hit perhaps the perfect tone to start their show, not that a fervent, nearly full arena of fans needed much prodding. The band has become one of the biggest and most celebrated metal acts of recent years, and the first of a two-disc 2005 onslaught, Mezmerize, only has served to cement that reputation. (The second disc, Hypnotize, is due in November.) So when a single spotlight centered on guitarist/vocalist Deron Malakian as he began to sing Soldier Side, the new album's introduction, the crowd was clearly ready. What they were ready for, at least for starters, was B.Y.O.B., the new disc's second track. It set the tone obviously with the lyrics "Everybody's going to the party/have a real good time"; it set it in a topical sense with "Why don't presidents fight the war/Why do they always send the poor?"; and it set it musically, as the song contains the band's mad time-signature switches.
The changes in song structure helped turn the concert into the equivalent of a wild rollercoaster, lurching the crowd from side to side and up and down. But the crowd was with System for each shift. And it didn't matter whether it was a newer cut from Mezmerize, a track from Toxicity, the album that broke System in 2001, or even something like Mr. Jack, a song from Steal This Album!, the stripped-down, highly politicized album that System released in 2002. For the most part, the band's sound bounces between the power of metal and the aggressiveness and speed of punk. But System has moved to rock's forefront because of the ingredients they add to that basic formula not just those time changes, but also throwing in flashes of Middle Eastern music (showing the four band members' Armenian heritage), and even a touch of jazz. This is a band unafraid to turn a song completely on its ear, and its fans are savvy enough to realize that and go with it. Then there are the vocal histrionics of Serj Tankian, known for a staccato delivery but willing to unleash a faux-operatic falsetto at times. Tankian's voice also meshed well when Malakian added his vocals. Credit should also go to the rhythm section bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan who handle System's unorthodox style deftly. The show hit an emotional apex during Toxicity's Aerials, a charged ballad that received a good deal of airplay in 2001. The entire crowd helped Tankian with the vocals, giving the song a choral feeling. Support act the Mars Volta also adds a little of its heritage to its style in their case, sometimes adding a Latin flavor to its hard-rocking songs. And like System, the Volta's got a highly acclaimed new album out, Frances the Mute. They're also incredibly skilled musicians, especially guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, who maintained a smooth style even when the Mars Volta, too, fiddled with the structure of the songs. Unfortunately, the Mars Volta's decision to extend its songs to give them an experimental feel, while at first thrilling, became tedious after a while. It was enjoyable to see Rodriguez-Lopez and lithe lead singer Cedric Bixler take one of their tunes into space-rock or jazz realms the first time, but they repeated themselves. Opening act Bad Acid Trip had half the equation right a wildly entertaining lead singer, Dirk Rogers, to match Bixler and Tankian, at least in terms of stage presence. Rogers was the most animated of the night's three singers (no mean feat, considering Bixler at one point crawled around on his hands and knees). The bad news was that the sound was basic hard core they play it well, but with two bands who take their sound to extremes, Bad Acid Trip paled, but only by comparison. By Jonathan Tully
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
<A href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2005/08/19/a7e_system_of_a_down_0819.html" target=_blank>Palmbeachpost.com
|
