Denver, Colorado. Wednesday April 27th  10:00 Tickets for the second date of  SOAD's so-called ‘Guerrilla-Tour’ go on sale at Denver’s 1200 capacity Ogden theatre. Having seen an advert in the local music paper or heard announcements on the local rock radio station, an estimated 3000 kids are here in sub-zero temperature, the first having arrived 30 hours ago. Many of the fans in line have bunked off school or called in sick to work to be here. one fan who understandably prefers to remain nameless, has gone AWOL from the military for the day.  10:27 System of a down tickets sell out. Unfortunately, due to a venue fuck up, people have been allowed to buy 6 tickets each instead of two; so many of them have falled into the hands of scumbag touts. Prepare for bidding war!  17:00 $30 tickets are now exchanging hands for up to $400. Having abandoned the venues dressing room because it’s too cold to stay in, SOAD front man Serj Tankian shows up on the bands plush tour bus, parked across the street around the back of a dodgy-looking 7-eleven store. He is not exactly chuffed to hear about the ticket touts, but admits that is not the first time it has happened.

“What happened with the souls show was it sold out pretty quickly and these people, companies probably, bought a bunch of tickets and started selling them at crazy over-inflated prices, which is completely against the ethics of the band. So what were trying to do with these shows is make it so its first come, first served; if you really want tickets then go and get ‘em. And its supposed to be limited to two per person, so people selling tickets at over-inflated prices kind of goes against that.

17:15 Drummer John Dolmayan and bassist Shavo Odadjian turn upon the bus. Apparently that dressing room really is cold, but it’s not entirely unfamiliar! “We opened here for slayer back in the day and it’s pretty cool to play here again,” says John. “I walked around the city by myself, just like I did the first time and got my food and didn’t get recognized, which was great. Last time I was eating in a Wendy’s and there was four kids sitting opposite that were obviously going to the show and they didn’t recognize me, but I like that. It’s cool that I can still walk around." Does it feel weird to be able to sell out the same venue in a matter of minutes now? “Not really, because if we can’t sell out a venue this size in seconds then we’ll probably be playing this venue next time we come to town,” notes John.“But its still an accomplishment to have that many people want to see you play.

It’s a big deal." We've been very fucking spoiled in that way,” adds guitarist Daron Malakian. “We’ve done really well with audiences since the first show at the Roxy. It was close to sold out and with us it just got bigger and bigger. We’ve always played in front of a somewhat packed room and we've not really had that much experience of that empty bar situation. We’ve just been really lucky. I mean, we’ve had hard times, but not because of our audiences. We had a hard time getting a label. We packed houses in LA for two or three years straight and nobody wanted to sign us, but we’d see bands that didn’t have the crows we had getting signed and touring Europe and were still unsigned in LA; but this success is more beautiful because they were against us.

17:25 Having complained that a recent feature mentioned his use of medical marijuana and got him in trouble with his mum, Shavo heads off with John to walk around and get some food. “You should put worse things in!” laughs Daron when he’s gone. “Say that he was doing crack and heroin! I’ll back you up.” It should probably be stated that Shavo was absolutely not doing anything of the sort.

17:28 A huge roar from outside the bus indicates that Serj’s efforts at anonymity as he heads back to the venue haven’t been quite so successful as his band mates. Meanwhile Daron is expounding the joys of travelling by bus in America rather than flying to each city. “I hate flying,” he says, “not because I’m scared, but because you have to just sit there and if you want a drink or some food you have to look up and ask someone. This way (on the tour bus), already having travelled for seven hours from LA to their show at the Fillmore in San Francisco to Denver. “ I could seriously live o­n this bus. Its like living o­n a giant limo!”And presumably just as expensive? “Yeah”, Daron smiles. “We’re probably not making shit o­n this tour, it probably all goes back to the production and crew and busses and stuff, but I havnt really asked. I don’t really care. I don’t do it for money. I mean, I’ve made money and I make investments to protect that, but I don’t focus o­n it very much. This is just a cool thing to do before the record comes out.”

18:00 An hour before the doors are due to open it starts to rain. Not that its going to dampen the spirits of any of the kids braving the bitter temperatures outside. “Dude”, yells 19-year old Erin Coutts, “Its system! Fuck the rain!” You cant really argue with logic like that.

19:00 The Ogden theatre finally opens its doors. It turns out to be a great venue, split into different levels so you can see the stage from pretty much anywhere. Alongside the usual beverages, large shots of Jagermeister can be purchased for $4. Its warming qualities are no doubt as welcome as its alcoholic o­nes.

19:25 The first of many SOAD chants starts up, so loud you can probably hear them in England, let alone in the tiny dressing room that SOAD are holed up into. “Its interesting having closer contact,” grins Serj of a room that doesn’t actually fir the whole band, and getting to the stage is like, 10 feet instead of a little car ride, so its cool.”

19:55 The Denver crowd is now completely deafening, hearing yourself think is not an option.

20:05 System of a down hit the stage with the new song BYOB and the place goes absolutely ballistic with half a dozen mosh pits breaking out into o­ne giant pit. If the bands smiles were any bigger the tops of their heads would fall off!

21:35 A colossal show, featuring everything from chop suey and toxicity through Mr Jack from Steal this album! To Kill rock’n’roll and Cigaro, ends with the old live favorite Sugar. If the roar of the crowd sounds quieter at this point, its because you’ve gone deaf.

21:40 Realising that there’s not going to be an encore, the crowd slowly starts to thin out as people head outside to find that its snowing heavily. Sweaty T-shirts rapidly become a good way to catch pneumonia and most fans wisely decide not to hang around.

21:53 John, Serj and Shavo emerge from the dressing room/matchbox grinning from ear to ear. “We expected to play very dead because Denvers a mile high and there isn’t a lot of air to go around.” Informs John “But that was o­ne of our best shows ever! Smaller shows are always gonna be a tighter vibe; you can hear the audience and their energy and some times you can smell them which isn’t so great. Were playing much tighter than we were and I felt like I was o­n fire! Everybody was having a good time. I mean, I never smile, so if I was smiling you know something specials happening.”“Actually”, says Serj, “John always laughing o­nstage, you just never catch it. I make John laugh so much o­nstage you just never catch it. I make John laugh so much o­nstage that he hates it. He’s like, ‘you’re gonna make me fuck up all the time!’ I go up to him and make funny faces and try to put him off. I think we enjoy our connection now a lot more than when we were o­n separate trips that we used to have o­nstage. When people see the guys enjoying each other and laughing o­nstage it adds to the experience.”

22:57 A minibus takes SOAD back to their tour bus before they head for their hotel as the last of the kids heads home, tired, cold and utterly elated.Dallas, Texas

Thursday, April 28

15:27 Eighteen-year-old Eric Stodolnik is the first to show up at the 1,125 capacity Granada theatre. Its 101 degrees, a sweltering, brain-frying heat and tickets for SOAD’s show here don’t go o­n sale for another 18 hours, but there’s no way he’s missing this.“I’ve never seen them before, last time I tried to get tickets but it sold out really quickly and obviously this’ll sell out even faster, so I had to get here as early as I could. I’ll probably just sit here until the show starts.

23:59 About fifty kids loiter in the Granada’s car park. Despite the face that they’re not even allowed to queue in front of the building until 2am there is a wonderful campfire vive (minus the fire). New friends are being made, jokes told, experiences shared and someone is playing a passable version of pink Floyd’s ‘wish you were here’ o­n an acoustic guitar. A few hours from now his wish will come true and there will be thousands of kids here. You can’t help wishing that all of them could get to see the show.

Friday, April 29 10:00 System tickets go on sale and sell out instantly, this time with no fuck-ups and no touts.

15:55 A small group of kids is pressed up against the makeshift barrier at the back of the Granada theatre. o­ne or two of them take a second glance at the man in a white shirt and woolly hat who’s just emerged from SOAD’s tour bus.“Nah that’s not him,” says o­ne of them confidently, completely failing to recognise John as he heads into the venue to practice o­n a drum kit rather tastefully decorated with pictures of vaginas.

16:09 John emerges from the venue and a few kids being to get a sneaking suspicion that they should be asking for autographs. “Dude it’s definitely not him,” says the same kid even though hes holding o­n to an album with John’s picture on it.

16:37 Serj comes out of the tour bus and is instantly recognised. He ambles over with an ever-present smile and starts signing anything that is thrust his way. It’s the first time he’s heard about last nights little party.“It’s amazing”, he beams. “They were telling me they’d established a little corner where they were playing guitars and singing and I think that’s awesome, that’s what its all about.. The creation of music is a communal thing in a lot of ways, Its good to be inspired by others”.

16:45 John is finally rumbled and starts signing autographs. Like Serj he’s more than happy t o hear stories of how this gig has turned into an adventure and a lifetime experience for many of these kids.“That’s how it used to be back when there was no ticketmaster”, he relates. “You had to go to the venue and buy tickets, so people would take two or three days sometimes to get their tickets. There’s something to be said about that; there’s a camaraderie that you share with the other people in line and it means so much more because you’ve suffered to see that show as opposed to just picking up the phone and having the tickets mailed to your house. I used to go and see Fishbone a lot when I was 15 or 16 years old and wed go camping because they’d play so far out of town. We’d get fucked up for two or three days and then go to the show, so every time we saw Fishbone it was really a big event.

17:00 Daron and Shavo come out and sign stuff for an increasingly excited but nonetheless polite bunch of kids. Some of the faces are familiar from last night and luckily all of them have managed to get tickets, including 19 year old Robbie Tobuyass who camped out all night and has been here all day.“I called in sick to work, I called the manager going, ‘I don’t feel good’ and in the background somebody yells ’I fucking love System!’ I was like ‘Oh that was my TV, gotta go, bye!’.”Some late arrivals haven’t been so fortunate. Seventeen year old Travis Morgan has just arrived after a five hour drive from Wichita Falls and has little chance of getting in to the show. But he and his friends are so cool they make sure to get things signed for their mates who couldn’t make it here at all before getting autographs for themselves.

17:18 Shavo goes back o­n the bus to watch the Michael Jackson trial.

18:15 System sound check with BYOB and Mr Jack,

19:20 Serj is back out to sign stuff again – some of them kids are now so excited they can barely speak.“That’s a mental perception o­n their part,” reasons Serj. “But it does affect your interaction with them. There’s kids that are cool and are like ‘Hey how’re you doing?’ That’s always more comfortable than someone screaming at you. But no matter what your perception is, whether its approachable or unapproachable, if your enjoying the experience then I’m very happy to be a part of that. Its like the whole experience of somebody wanting to take a picture of you or get an autograph…a handshake or a look in the eye or just a few words sometimes, is so much more worthy than something material. But some people like to collect stuff, I don’t.”That said he still does a special signing of a souls poster for Eric who’s first in line.

19:27 We make Eric’s life by finding him in the queue, that now stretches right around the car park, and giving him the poster.

19:30 Remarkable two girls are having trouble getting rid of spare tickets. We point them in the direction of where we last saw the kids from Wichita Falls. Fingers crossed.

20:00 The Granada opens its doors to 1,125 very very excited System of a Down fans. Again, it’s a very cool venue, in atmosphere and layout, if not in temperature. Already you could fry an egg o­n the mixing desk. The SOAD chants start immediately.

21:03 System of a down hit the stage, again opening with BYOB. If anything the Dallas crowd is louder and more frenzied that Denver.

21:17 The realisation dawns that this is, without question, the best show SOAD has ever played. Hell its not a show it’s a religious experience, mesmerising, hypnotising, flawlessly brilliant and made all the more incredible by being in such a small venue. SOAD make you laugh, cry, think and dance all iun o­ne song! More than that, you can completely lose yourself in their music, all that internal dialogue and all of lifes worries vanishing and allowing you precious breathing space.

22:10 The set ends early, rumours suggesting that fire marshals have closed it down due to overcrowding. For a moment it looks like the situation might get out of hand, but instead most kids had for the back car park, hoping that the band will come and hang out for a while.

22:18 John reveals that the set was cut short because Daron almost fainted in the heat.

22:24 This time shadowed by the security guards, Shavo and John head out to start signing autographs again. It turns out that their security are ex-marines, something that initially seems a little strange considering SOAD have so many anti-war songs. “We’re not singing against those guys,” reasons Shavo, “We’re with them because they’re giving their lives to something they believe in. They’re not the o­nes starting wars, they’re just sent there. They’re amazing looking after us because they know exactly what to look out for and they do a really good job. You know, someone mught hate us and want to kill the whole band. I try not to think about it at all, but if it happens, we’re martyrs! If I thought about it I’d be paranoid the whole time! But when they said, ‘Are you sure you wanna go out there?’, I’m like ‘ Of course I wanna go out there! I’m gonna stay until every kid is happy! ’Has he ever had that experience? “Of course I have!” Beams Shavo. “I met Motley Crue when I was 13 and they were filming the Girls ,Girls, Girls’ video down the street from where I lived. I had a test at school and I didn’t wanna take it so I pretended to be ill and my mom picked me up from school. We had to stop at the market real quick and there was a strip joint opposite and my mom foes, ‘Doesn’t that look like the guy o­n your wall? I looked over and it was Nikki Sixx. I’m like ‘Oh my fucking god!’ We drove off and my mom had to go back to work and she goes, ‘Don’t come down here! Of course I grabbed my ‘Theatre of Pain’ record and ran down there. I was the o­nly kid there and Nikki Sixx called me over, signed my record and took me inside the strip joint. So I got to see the video being made at that age! I got to tell him years later like, ‘You remember that kid who was hanging out…”

22:39 For almost an hour Serj, John and Shavo sign everything from t-shirts to body parts. Could this band be possible any nicer?

23:16 SOAD’s manager points out that they actually have to leave sometime tonight and the three band members reluctantly head back to the tour bus where Shavo and John have a brief but good humoured argument because Shavo insists o­n watching ‘The Surreal Life’ o­n TV.“Dude this is horrible, please change it”, pleads John.“But its funny”, insists Shavo.It is, in face not remotely funny. But somehow its entirely apt that System of a down should be watching something called the surreal life. Welcome to their world.

This is from Kerrang Magazine Issue Number1056.

Guerrilla gigs, a giant bong and a drum kit covered in vaginas – this can only be the weird and wonderful world of life on the road with System of a Down

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