System Of A Down, RiseAgainst, Butterfly Effect @Hordern Pavilion, 25/01/05

Thu 3rd Feb, 2005 in Gig Reviews

The Butterfly Effect have always been a very confident live act and they really work in a larger venue like the Hordern, as the decent sized mosh pit demonstrated. Performing all their best known tunes with professionalism and ease they got the crowd sufficiently pumped for Chicago melodic punk/quasi-political band Rise Against. Having not been familiar with their material previously and not being particularly drawn to their genre, I was kept pretty interested throughout the set. Judging by the guys standing next to me chanting along to every word they must be doing something right!

System Of A Down came on stage to a packed Hordern filled with all sorts of eccentrics that an eclectic band like SOAD are bound to attract.

They opened with the haunting Aerials and I was pleasantly surprised when they launched straight into one of my favourites from Steal This Album, Mr Jack. Already I was a happy customer, and the band were looking pretty jolly themselves. Serj was sporting a new afro-mullet which, coupled with his puffy shirt/ornate jacket ensemble, gave the overall impression of a bizarre mix between Yanni and Gene Simmons (in a good way). With Daron twirling around like hyperactive five year old and Serj performing dance moves as crazy as his vocal effects, it was hard not to get swept up in the positive energy in the air. The band were tight as ever with guitar and vocal improvisations and flourishes that were often mind blowing. They pulled out a killer rendition of Chop Suey! pretty early on in the set, and also ripped through such crowd pleasers as Prison Song, Psycho and Science.

The middle-eastern influence seems to have come more to the forefront which can only be a good thing for this band, perhaps due to Serj’s side project Serart, and hopefully this is a hint of the direction of the new material. We were treated to three new songs on the night, one of which Cigaro has already been making an appearance on the internet and radio. It’s a typically quirky and catchy number, as was another newie Kill Rock’n’Roll.

Final new song Holy Mountain was a longer, more sombre affair which Daron opened by stating that the particular mountains in question belong to “ARMENIA AND NOT TO TURKEY.” Most of the crowd cheered in agreement to this statement though I think I can confidently assume that very few actually knew of the history of the mountains (myself included!).

Crowd interaction and onstage banter was minimal and they managed to plough through impressive number of songs in a relatively short time. Songs like Spiders and Toxicity gave Serj the chance to show off his amazing singing (as opposed to screaming) voice and applause and smiles broke out infectiously every time he hit one of the particularly soaring notes. One of the more experimental moments of the set was War which was reworked with an awesome extended breakdown using eerie robotic vocal effects. They closed with awesome and much anticipated renditions of Sugar and Suite-Pee which thoroughly sapped everyone of their last reserves of energy.

Only complaints I could make are the exorbitant prices of the merchandise (shirts were $10 cheaper at BDO!) and the lack of Innervision on the setlist, but really these are only afterthoughts and it was a great show. System Of A Down are improving with time and their next release could very possibly be their best.