After a 4-½ hour, 240 mile drive home in driving rain, I am still in a state of pure happiness.

I saw SOAD in Chicago nearly two weeks ago, and of course it was an awesome show. But Buffalo was beyond amazing. They are just getting better and better and I am so frickin’ jealous of all of you who still have shows to go to… I'm desperately trying to think of a way to get to West Palm Beach for the last show!

I was in the pit, right in front of Daron. I really believe that as Daron goes, so goes the show. The rest of the band seems pretty reliably happy on stage, but in Chicago, at least, Daron struck me as a bit reserved or uncomfortable. But tonight he had his bowl out and I guess a few hits really had him loose!

The most amazing moment for me was at the end of a song (sorry, I can’t for the life of me remember which one because the moment was just so charged my brain sort of froze!), Daron was on his knees and the only way I can describe it was that he was in convulsions over his guitar and his head was down and his mouth was open and drool was falling freely. The girl next to me sort of went “eeewwwww” -- but for me it just illustrated why I love this band so damned much. There was no vanity -- I think Daron may have briefly gone to a place where the audience didn’t even exist anymore. It made me think of the Rick Rubin quote that was posted on Daron’s birthday, where he said something like “Daron doesn’t live in the real world. He lives in a bubble, and there’s music in the bubble.” And I think tonight we witnessed him in the bubble at that moment and my god it was a privilege!

Anyway, the other bands were fun and all -- Avenged Sevenfold was particularly great doing “Walk” with a singer from Bleeding Through, and Disturbed were rowdy and rockin’ -- but it doesn’t really mean anything in a universal way, and I sort of wonder if they’ve got stylists and such. They seem so theatrical. And then there’s people here complaining about Serj wearing the so-called ugly red shirt (that says Obey Posse, in case anyone wondered) and you know no one styled him or anyone else in the band. They’re all who they are -- Shavo and those crazy yellow socks of his! -- and the music’s fun and rowdy, but it also really matters! It’s art, and they’re such fucking wonderful artists it made me proud to be breathing the same air as they were tonight! What a privilege!

Daron also did 'Lonely Day' with a lyric that said, ‘I fuckin’ love everybody on this stage right here,’ which was awesome to hear and he certainly seemed to be loving them all. When Serj sang 'Toxicity' during the lyric “Conversion Software Version 7.0” he sang something really fast that made Daron laugh and they all just seemed so happy playing together.

Random notes:

Serj: I defy anyone who heard him do 'Revenga' or 'War?' or 'Suggestions' tonight to say his voice is going! His voice is amazing recorded even though you know he’s had a few goes at it -- but it’s awe-inspiring live when they’re playing that little bit faster and he’s got one shot. It all sounded amazing -- the growls, the falsetto, the speed. And at one point he said to the audience in a really sing-song voice something like, “Don’t leave. We’ll miss you!” and it just broke my heart because I’m going to miss them so freakin' much during the hiatus.

John: I saw his teeth! He smiled! Serj was dancing all goofy in front of him during 'Hypnotize' and the corners of his mouth sort of lifted and I thought, ‘oh my god this is it!’ and then it went full-spread smile. Gorgeous!

Shavo: He was much more lively tonight than in Chicago. He seemed to be sitting a lot of the show there -- wonder if his leg was hurting? Anyway, tonight he was bopping around and just so sweet and smiley. And Harry Perry was there and kind of mimicking him, which was beyond cute. At one point Shavo was banging on John’s cymbal with his bass.

And the icing on my already fully loaded cake was that I got one of Daron’s picks! Beautiful. My night could not possibly have been better.

The set list was:

Soldier Side Intro
Attack
BYOB
Revenga
Needles
Deer Dance

Then in no particular order:
Cigaro
Question!
Prison Song
Radio/Video
Old School Hollywood
Lost in Hollywood
Hypnotize
Lonely Day
Violent Pornography
Psycho
Kill Rock n Roll
War!
Suggestion
Sultans of Swing

And the last three were:
Aerials
Toxicity
Sugar

More Reviews can be found in the Forums and in Tour Dates

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