System of a Down's anti-war anthems feel disturbingly prescient live
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- System of a Down played a high-energy set with no new songs, the review noting the band has released only two new tracks since reforming in 2010 amid reported creative impasses.
- Daron Malakian led crowd chants including 'Pull Oasis out of your ass!' and sparked a circle-pit stretching from stage to exit, while Shavo Odadjian performed bass with 'unparalleled panache' and Serj Tankian switched between growling, crooning, operatic vocals, and a meow.
- Older tracks like Suite-Pee and Chic'n'Su retained their 'shock-of-the-new impact' decades on, the review said, blending technical savagery, perverted pop instincts, and anthemic melodies.
- Malakian told the crowd 'Another angry song. Pardon us for being so angry — the world is kind of fucked!' before the set's anti-war framing was driven home by opener BYOB, in which Tankian howls 'Why do they always send the poor?'
- The review argued the band's 'paranoid visions of America's decaying future under debilitating capitalism' no longer feel paranoid, and a satirical video-screen ad promising human suffering 'in 4K' drove the point home.
- The band's eclectic style draws from Dead Kennedys, Faith No More, and Frank Zappa, producing what the reviewer called a 'weirdo bricolage' that is 'disorientating' but 'as inspired as it is chaotic.'
- Despite the bleak subject matter, the reviewer framed the performance as 'life-affirming catharsis' and 'scourging, thrilling, eviscerating entertainment.'
Why it matters: A legacy band with no new material for over a decade can still fill arenas and feel culturally urgent — SOAD's anti-war and anti-capitalist material, written 25+ years ago, is being recast as prophecy rather than paranoia, giving the band a relevance they could not have manufactured with fresh releases.
