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SOAD Make the Political Personal @ Souls 05 |
Posted by JP on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 03:20 AM
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UNIVERSAL CITY, California — It was mesmerizing and hypnotizing even if System of a Down's first U.S. concert in a year didn't feature much from the band's upcoming Mezmerize/Hypnotize.
At Sunday's Souls 2005, the band's annual benefit held on the day Armenians recognize the Armenian genocide each year, System played only three tracks from their new double album instead treating the sold-out Gibson Amphitheatre crowd to a flood of familiar favorites.
The 25-song set, however, did kick off with new single "B.Y.O.B.", which had the audience singing along to the disco chorus, "Everybody's going to the party/ Have a real good time," while singer Serj Tankian got his groove on.
After returning to more familiar territory with "Science," the band debuted "Kill Rock 'n' Roll" from Hypnotize, a roller coaster of a tune that goes up and down a few times before ending in a crescendo of screams from Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian.
"When I was a little boy, I talked to Superman and he told me to kill rock and roll and fuck all you sexy people," Malakian said before breaking into the opening guitar riff.
With his, ahem, interesting song introductions, nonstop animated facial expressions, and occasional sprints or twirls across the stage, the guitarist stole the crowd's attention from the get-go and never gave it back.
"We didn't start this band to change the world," he announced prior to "Aerials." "We didn't start this band to change your mind. We started this band to make you ask questions."
Later in the show, following hits like "Chop Suey" and "Spiders," the band played the second and final Mezmerize tune, "Cigaro." Judging by how loudly fans sang along, it was apparently downloaded widely after being leaked onto the Internet earlier this year
As with last year's Souls concert, the group fittingly ended the show with "P.L.U.C.K. (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers)," which includes the verse "A whole race genocide/ Taken away all of our pride/ Revolution, the only solution/ We've taken all your sh--/ Now it's time for restitution."
Before the show began, the band played a video about the Armenian genocide in which the Ottoman Turks killed as many as 1.5 million Armenians between 1895 and 1915
"It's a better thing for me inside, because we're doing it for a purpose. We're not just playing a show, we're trying to do something special for us and our people," bassist Shavo Odadjian said backstage. "We say all the time that this isn't just a political issue for us, it's personal. So there's energy when we're doing this, because the people watching are feeling it too."
Proceeds from Sunday's show benefited several organizations, including Amnesty International, Center for the Prevention of Genocide, and Axis of Justice, Tankian's political action group with Tom Morello.
While Sunday's show featured only three new tunes, the band said its somewhat guerrilla (shows are announced less than a week in advance) club tour will include more new material. "It's gonna be tough to decide the set, because there's so many songs from our old list we don't want to let go," Malakian said. "But we might have to."
Only four of the tour's 10 dates have so far been announced: Monday (April 25) at the Fillmore in San Francisco, Wednesday at Ogden Theatre in Denver, Friday at the Granada in Dallas, and Saturday at the Music Hall in Austin. The band recently played three similar scaled-down club shows in Europe.
"We played a 600-seater in France that was amazing," Odadjian said. "I got so excited when I saw the place. Just vibewise, with the crowd, it was amazing."
"These venues are too big," said drummer John Dolmayan. "I'd like to do 200- to 300-seaters all across the country."
Souls 2005 set list:
* "B.Y.O.B."
* "Science"
* "Kill Rock 'n' Roll"
* "Suggestions"
* "Psycho"
* "Chop Suey"
* "Mr. Jack"
* "Needles"
* "Deer Dance"
* "Aerials"
* "Holy Mountains"
* "Spiders"
* "Streamline"
* "Bounce"
* "Atwa"
* "Forest"
* "Cigaro"
* "Highway Song"
* "War?"
* "Prison Song"
* "Roulette"
* "Toxicity"
* "Suite-Pee"
* "Sugar"
* "P.L.U.C.K."
Credit: MTV.com News
Check the Full Review of the concert HERE
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Comments
cozmachina
26.04.05, 06:34
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JP, thank you so much.
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Pedroz
26.04.05, 07:50
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That's a great setlist. But only three new songs? What about Holy Mountain?
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newbcannon
26.04.05, 08:28
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thats what i was thinking
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316SOAD
26.04.05, 13:04
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They did play holy mountain. Before the started the song they were saying how those mountains really belong to the Armenian people. Song was awsome live! The whole shows was awsome. I went last year too, and the production alone was better this time around. I loved it, crowd was awsome!
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dropdeaddolly
26.04.05, 16:15
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I liked when they played "Kill rock n roll" and Daron said he talked to superman....that was fucking funny I fucking LOVE SYSTEM OF A DOWN THAT WAS THE BEST FUCKING NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!
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iWorshipDaron
27.04.05, 14:45
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SOULS 05 WAS FRIKKEN OF THE HOOK, BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!, BUT HOW COME THEY DONT HAVE THAT ARMENIAN SONG THEY SANG BEFORE "WAR?" AND I THINK ANOTHER AFTER "PLUCK" ON THE SET LIST? i got to sneak in my lil digital camera and take lkil clips of it
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bring_your_own_bombs
30.04.05, 06:05
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oww, when are they coming back to australia. goddammit i wanna see em!
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