| On September 30th, 2005 18,504 people experienced the best show the Allstate Arena has witnessed. System of a Down hit the stage at exactly 9:15 p.m. Daron's silhouette lit up the stage as he belted out "Soldier Side". The curtain then dropped and the rest of the band emerged. They started the show with "B.Y.O.B." and the guys immediately were overflowing with energy. People have stated in various reviews that Serj was "boring" on stage. That was not the case here. He was dancing throughout the two hours the band was on stage. Shavo and Daron dashed to opposite sides of the stage on a regular basis. At one point, Shavo was standing high on a large speaker. The whole right side of the arena was going wild! During "Mr. Jack" some guy, whole got pulled from the crowd by security, threw a stack of pink flyers at Daron's direction. Daron did not like that one bit. Daron spit at him and called him a dumbass. System of a Down played the usual songs but surprised the crowd with an advance listen of their new single, "Hypnotize". Daron shouted that Chicago is good to System of a Down and that they love playing here. And that Chicago is very special to them. Toward the end of the show, Serj talked about his elderly grandfather and about the promise he made him. He talked about Congressman Dennis Hastert and the Armenian Genocide. He suggested that everybody go to their website to get the fax to send to Congress. He ended his speech by saying that the crowd is "fucking beautiful". During "Psycho" John had let this guy do the drum playing while he stood on the sideline. I didn't catch who it was...maybe the drum tech? Daron also did some bass playing. During "Suite-Pee", Daron played 3 chords of Shavo's bass. From my view it looked like he was playing with something else.....MOVING ON, Daron was his crazy self! He made his crazy faces and repeatedly got down on his knees and rocked out. Shavo was singing along to every song and gave the right and left sides of the stage equal attention. He was also still wearing those bright yellow socks! Serj was jumping, spinning, and dancing like a mad man. John was hidden behind his drum set but was banging hard on those drums! During "Lost in Hollywood" the audience pulled out their lighters and cellphones and were waving them in the air. It was quite a site. "Forest" never sounded better! Serj sounded flawless during "Aerials" and "Question". In fact, every song was sung and played immaculately. The crowd seemed to go insane when the band played songs off Mezmerize. The people by my section went nuts when they played "Violent Pornography" Everyone was banging their heads simultaneously. Every single person in the arena was into it and the band seemed to be enjoying themselves. I could not have asked for a better show. This show deserves an award. |