» Scars On Broadway 2008 09 07  
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Reviewed by Thomas
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Special guest: Fingerspitzengefühl, I Are Droid
City: Gothenburg, Sweden
Venue: Trädgårn
Date: 07 Sep 2008
Scars On Broadway setlength: 40 min.

Scars On Broadway

Scars On Broadway is the second spawn to come out of System Of A Down which is put on hold for the moment. Whilst Serj Tankian is going on a solo endeavour, guitarist and vocalist Daron Malakian is joining forces with drummer John Dolymayan in the mentioned Scars On Broadway. And with their debut album that easily described sounds like a more mature System Of A Down, they have gathered some strong material. Hence, to make a success with their live-performance would not have been that hard to achieve for them, but they failed quite heavily due to a totally uninspired performance.

It started well with the album opener Serious, and then they just kept going on and poured out song after song, one after the other, with no chance of letting the audience catch their breath, so it is safe to say that they opened splendidly. However, it just kept on rolling, and you started to think that the reason they were pouring out the songs was because they did not feel like they wanted to be there, and they made no attempts whatsoever to establish any contact with the crowd. I don't know about you, but I for one like some connection between band and audience.

Nevertheless, it was a tight performing band and even if I prefer the voice of Serj Tankian in System Of A Down, I must say that Daron's voice worked surprisingly well live, sad though he seemed to be in a shitty mood and that it felt like his mind was elsewhere. It was a shame to see how they frittered away they performance as it only felt like all they wanted was to get through as few songs as possible but enough to call it a concert and then leave. And so they did, with hardly a word spoken to the audience and no attempts whatsoever to create any kind of relation between the band and the crowd. I mean, they have several songs that Daron easily could got the audience to sing along to, but neither he nor the band had any interest of being on stage this evening.

Eventually, after just about the entire forty minutes, they ended their set with They Say, and by now they actually stirred things up, only the to utter the words; Thank you for coming, we are Scars On Broadway, and then leave the stage. Moreover, bare in mind, that was all that was said throughout the evening, what a disgrace. To me this was nothing more than a fucking rip-off, and not least disrespectful to their fans for not at least trying to give the paying fans what they came for. Let it be that there was a shamefully weak turn up, but no matter what, they damn well owe it to the fans to put up a show for those who are there.

4 chalices of 10


(sorry, no setlist)

Related links:
www.scarsonbroadway.com