(no subject)
Kelsey and I left the house at about 6:00 (even though the show started at 7:30) and got there way early. We chatted around a bunch of people before going inside and getting patted down. Kels said we had floor tickets but we didn't, but that's okay because everyone was throwing beer around and at people and it was gross. She spotted some of her friends and we met up (we didn't know they'd be there) and ran inside when the lights turned off. We didn't want to sit in our seats so we jacked some better seats about 15 metres from the stage before Hella came on. No one asked us to move from the seats so we figured we could just keep them. They were great seats as well. Just a bit crowded because we had to fit four people in a 3 seat area. It was a shame that we came so early because Hella was terrible. Very annoying. We could not wait for it to end. But it did, and everyone was greatful. After a few minutes of setting up, The Mars Volta came onstage and they were better than Hella, but they played continuously for one whole hour with only one break. Everyone thought they were finished and were glad, but then the lead singer declared that they had more in store for us, and everyone resumed being disappointed. The only great part during their go was when some fellow jumped the barrier into the standing zone and the security man ran after him and slipped. It was so funny. I was laughing for 5 minutes straight. Finally at 9:00, TMV left, and the stagecrew began setting up for SOAD. A huge curtain with that crazy fellow with the clock on his head from the cover of Mezmerize was put up so no one could see what was going on (I'm sure it wasn't that interesting anyways). After they had finished, a large silhouette of Daron was projected onto a large screen, and he began playing Soldier Side. I was relieved because I heard some negative things regarding SOAD's performance on stage. Not true. They were amazing. It was a good thing we were up close because I have poor eyesight and would not have been able to see anything that was going on. Immediately after Soldier Side, the curtain dropped, and he teared into BYOB. I was disappointed in Serj because he sounded like he did not want to be there at all. He put forth little effort into his singing abilities for the first few songs. No matter, I said, Daron has enough enthusiasm for all four of them. After a while, Serj loosened up and became more... audience-friendly. Serj asked us the same question verbatim ("CALGARY how are you all doing tonight?") regularly at 45 minute intervals. Sometime early in the show Suggestions was performed, and (this is the best part of the show) when Serj sang 'You better give a piece of your ass,' Daron grabbed his ass and did a little booty shake. Oh my goodness. That was the funniest thing I had ever seen in my life. That itself owned the show. If it had ended right at that I would not have been disappointed. So, after my laughter had subsided and they chugged on through their songs, we finally came to Violent Pornography and Daron was talking about Jesus and the Church and SOS and whatnot. At one point in the show Daron asked the crowd if the Calgary Flames were still the champions of the Stanley Cup. I told him that he was a moron and that they had never won it in the first place, but he didn't hear me of course because a) he was 15 metres away, b) the audience was busy screaming at him and c) he probably wasn't expecting an answer. He eventually ended up knocking his microphone over and some stagehand had to run onstage and pick it up for him. He also did same mad crazy on-the-floor tricks. But they weren't really tricks because he was pretty much just writhing on the floor, like a maggot or something. Shavo was pretty fun to watch as well because he had on ridiculously bright yellow socks, and they were insanely distracting. My eyes kept gravitating back to his calves. I eventually managed to break my gaze and focus on challenging Kelsey to a jumping contest, which I ended up winning. It was great because during the song Bounce, Daron told everyone he wanted us to jump, so it was like one giant jumping contest! I bet I won that one as well. During all that bouncing the folks next to me decided it would be a great idea to headbang and whap their long hair in my face. That wasn't very fun, so I whipped out my own hair and whacked them back. This escalated into an air guitar challenge, and I showed them how it was done. I taught them a thing or two. Back to SOAD. They did a few improvisations during the set, but I forgot what they were. One was during Needles and the other was during Suite-Pee. It was about fundamentalists and letting a messiah look at your ass? I do not remember. Mid-concert, Daron began singing a song that actually suited his voice. I was so shocked. He actually sounded pretty good. But that was short lived and he went back to his usual style of whatever he does. Sugar was the ending song. It was pretty crazy because the crowd was hyped up, Serj had finally relaxed, Daron was consistent in his craziness, John was behind his drumset doing what he does best, and Shavo was yellow-leggedly standing on amp (and moving it quite a significant amount, might I add.) It ended rather abruptly, and John finally emerged with 6 drum sticks and threw a few at the crowd. I asked him to give me one, but he didn't listen because it's damn near impossible that he heard me, so I didn't catch one (of course). Shavo threw a bunch of mystery objects only at one area of the crowd, because he's a biased son of a bitch. Daron and Serj threw nothing, and just walked off. They didn't even say goodbye. Oh wait, they did ask us to give it up for Hella and The Mars Volta, but no one did because they were lame bands. They also thanked us for coming out tonight, which I thought was really nice of them. So we left, and I got all excited because people were randomly screaming and I had no idea what was going. Then I realized it was all for fun, and tossed in a few screams as well. The C-Train was packed, but we pushed our way through to a car and were home by 12:00 am.
Anyways! System of a Down were amazing. If anyone has an oppourtunity to go check them out, DO SO! You will not regret it. It was well worth the $65 I paid and more. It was worth it. I would do it again, and again and again, and again, and again...