SYSTEm OF A dOWN bring their own dazzle to Las Vegas.
AT THE DRIVE IN
Glendale’s metal renegades prove their length and breadth
There’s no quesTion that you either love AT The DriVe in or hate them. And hate is not too strong a word for those of who fall into the latter category and would rather put wasps up their arses than sit through another performance.
But what if somehow they didn’t suck and – whisper it – were actually quite good? A glance at the setlist suggests nothing unusual, mostly songs from the 2000 album Relationship In Command, but something is clearly different. Credit where it’s due, this is far from awful.
sYsTeM oF A DoWn, however, are in another universe entirely, and simply astonishing. Granted, it’s still amazing that a band this eclectic, this odd, are considered mainstream and selling out arenas, but then SOAD are unlike any other band. Funny, sad, heavy, mellow, fiercely political, absolutely absurd… and often all in the same song.
Tonight, quite frankly, is a lesson in how genius works, and a long overdue reminder of why these mad Armenians are one of the greatest bands on the planet. Admittedly, a 30-song setlist offers no new material, and there has been none since 2005, but you have to wonder where they’d even put any new songs. There’s no filler here whatsoever – obscure songs, sure, but no filler. Everything from the opener Innervision through Prison Song and beyond is vital, not just the hits but the deeper cuts, too, the beautifully melancholic Lost In Hollywood, the berserk Bounce, the colossal Aerials… hell, even Olivia Newton-John’s Physical leading into Psycho – all of it is magnificent, and still there are a few songs missing: no War?, no Old School Hollywood… Where the hell would they fit new songs?
Visually, the band are stunning, too. Not just the schizophrenic collage of images on the projection screen, but just to watch 10-plus circlepits at once, or the entire dance floor pogoing in unison is spectacular in itself. And, as cheesy as it sounds, the thousands of cell phones held aloft (this generation’s lighters) is just as special. Closing the set with Toxicity and Sugar, they leave us in absolutely no doubt that we’ve just witnessed the very best that rock’n’roll has to offer. System Of A Down, then. Their cocks are still much bigger than yours!
MÖRAT