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20130820 SOAD 016Wuhlheide, Berlin, Germany
20th August 2013
System of a Down & Hawk Eyes

SYSTEM OF A DOWN gave their only headline concert 2013 at Wuhlheide Berlin. Marek Lieberberg Konzerte (MLK) obviously has a good connection to the band founded in 1995 and so, the agency could win the band for the new festival Rock’n’Heim and Rock im Pott as well as for that show in Berlin.

Actually DREDG was announced as support for SOAD. After that didn’t work, the band THE PRETTY RECKLESS cancelled their show a few days ago as well. Now HAWK EYES, a rock band from Leeds UK founded in 2005, filled the support slot. Kerrang! says about the band, consisting of Paul Astick (vocals / guitar), Rob Stephens (guitar), Ryan Clark (bass) and Matt Reid (drums): "Exploding out of the speaker's on this phenomenal debut, it's immediately apparent that Hawk Eyes are a force to be reckoned with". NME says that "HAWK EYES will swoop down and rip out your intestines through your nostrils with this opening track to new album ‘Modern Bodies’". The four boys delivered a solid show for a support act. They heated up the audience on in a very good way. Drums & sound during the concert were excellent and the music echoed out in the late summer sky and into the masses. But there was no sign of a really distinctive sound. On their website you can hear their music and watch videos: http://www.hawkeyesmusic.com. Rating: 6.5 / 10

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System of a Down

There is no new material for a long time now from the American band with Armenian roots, the latest studio output ‘Hypnotize’ is already eight years old, and also live, Serj Tankian (vocals & keys), Daron Malakian (guitar & vocals), Shavarsh “Shavo” Odadjian (bass) and drummer John Dolmayan made themselves scarce during the last years. So at the nearly sold out Wuhlheide was a big anticipation for that concert. For a lot of people they are one of the first points on their “you have to see live“ list. Most of the people heard only from friends that they will have that gig. But the conditions for a well going evening concert couldn’t have been better: Little cloudy but warm and dry weather and about 17,000 cheerful people in the range of 16 years until 66 years old. http://systemofadown.com / https://www.facebook.com/systemofadown

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Music and Performance
SOAD entered the Stage at 8:50pm with big smiles in their faces (which were getting a little bit older) and a huge welcome of their fans. Already during their first songs some heated girls and freaking stage divers arrived in the pit in front of the stage. The sound was full and powerful so that the audience at the back of the auditorium could hear them very well. The whole atmosphere was really nice and the audience in a happy mood. Everywhere you could see smiling faces and hear loud sing-alongs, well understood if the band performs classics like ‘Prison Song’, ‘Chop Suey’, ‘Lost in Hollywood’ and ‘Aerials’. Serj, Daron, Shavarsh and John played perfectly together but sometimes in-between there was a little feeling of they just do their job and are not that kind of sworn group of the early years. Maybe because most people know about the band-intern quandary or they are nowadays just more reserved. But on the other hand they brought their fans to blow one's top with sentences like "This is the craziest fucking crowd in the whole fucking world".

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A real highlight was guitar man Darin Malakian who sang the "Unchained Melody" (Original: Righteous Brothers) with the lyrics "My cock is bigger than your cock". The audience was making a sitting Mexican Wave. Great! Of course there were some big, big mosh pits, too. Hopefully everyone on that evening got home healthy. One fan had a big pink flair and stood in the middle front of the audience. It was a nice picture to see that flame and smoke. This is SOAD audience, not any gender!!! But unfortunately the gig was over at 10:10PM without any encore. For the ticket fee of 62 Euro for many fans not enough. But real deep-rooted fans knew: Better 75 minutes full power than tough as chewing gum encores. But on the way back to their cars you could hear things like “great“, “colossal“, “bombastic“ or even “the best concert that I've ever seen“. All in all a diaphoretic and powerful evening!

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And now we are waiting for a new album of the Californian guys to see them hopefully on a big tour through Europe.

Setlist
01. Prison Song
02. Soldier Side – Intro
03. B.Y.O.B.
04. I-E-A-I-A-I-O
05. Needles
06. Deer Dance
07. Radio/Video
08. Hypnotize
09. Question!
10. Suggestions
11. Psycho (with "Disco Inferno" snippet by The Trammps)
12. Chop Suey!
13. Lonely Day
14. Bounce
15. Kill Rock 'n Roll
16. Lost in Hollywood
17. Forest
18. Science
19. Holy Mountains
20. Aerials
21. Tentative
22. Cigaro
23. Suite-Pee
24. War?
25. P.L.U.C.K.
26. Sartarabad
27. Toxicity
28. Sugar
---
No Encore!

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total 8 / 10

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All pictures by Nadine Ginzel (www.ginzel-photography.com)


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