Spirit moves through all things.

It had been 6 years since I was last in their presence – 5 years since they had decided to go on an ‘indefinite hiatus’ and a long, long time since I had bothered to play a song of theirs on my Ipod.  Yeah, I am retro – I have an Ipod…..none of these Ipods that can make phone calls and track Air Force 1 gimmicks!  Anyway, I hadn’t been so relieved and excited to hear about a comeback so much as when I heard System of a Down were touring again!  And I was one of the lucky individuals to have had a ticket bagged for Download where they headlined the Saturday evening.  It was a heavily anticipated show and they did not let anyone down. 

Twenty six songs on the set list and from the first song to the last – the energy exuberated from the band and transpiring into the crowd – it was amazing!

The set list was:-

1. Prison Song
2. Soldier Side Intro
3. B.Y.O.B
4. I-E-A-I-A-I-O
5. Needles
6. Deer Dance
7. Radio/Video
8. Hypnotize
9. Question!
10. Suggestions
11. Psycho
12. Chop Suey!
13. Lonely day
14. Bounce
15. Kill Rock n’ Roll
16. Lost in Hollywood
17. Forrest
18. Science
19. Holy Mountains
20. Aerials
21. Tentative
22. Cigaro
23. Suite-Pee
24. War?
25. Toxicity
26. Sugar

For any System of a Down fan this set list can only be described, rather simply, as “fucking awesome!” because, it simply is. 

We watched with awe as they came on.  We watched with awe at how amazing they were.  We watched with awe at how baffling it was that they were better than ever.   

I remember when I first got my hands on Toxicity which was the first album I listened to before my obsession with System of a Down began.  It was the summer of 2002 and I remember coming home from town – opening up the CD case and placing it into my CD player and my chin connecting with the floor harder than ever before.  It was so different.  It was the most outlandish, raw, eccentric collection of songs into an album I had ever heard.  I remember hearing how fast Jet Pilot began.  I thought this was too much at first.  I then fell in love with this song and the rest of the songs on Toxicity and the rest of the albums.  Like a wine, System of a down have matured to become better and better and this is reflected in their later albums. 

Everything System of a Down have accomplished and for everything they stand for I hope they do carry on creating the music that they do and I hope they do not pursue any more hiatuses in their future.  They are the voice of everything that is wrong in our world today. 

Much love,

Jackson L.