System Of A Down guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian was back onstage with his Scars On Broadway project last night, December 05th, for the first time since October of 2024. The Armenian-American nü-metal star followed suit from his recent live performances with System, delivering a sold out marathon 28-song set at The Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, CA.
Given the scarcity of live performances from the project, and the fact that a new Scars album titled “Addicted To The Violence” arrived this past July, yesterday’s concert was heavily populated by live debuts — including a significant chunk of the aforementioned album.
According to those who attended the concert, last night’s set ran as follows:
“Scars On Broadway“
“Whoring Streets” (first time since 2019)
“Killing Spree” (live debut)
“Satan Hussein” (live debut)
“Done Me Wrong” (live debut)
“World Long Gone“
“Shotgun” (live debut)
“Your Lives Burn” (live debut)
“Talkin’ Shit” (first time since 2019)
“Till The End” (first time since 2019)
“The Shame Game” (live debut)
“Destroy The Power” (live debut)
“Lives” (first time since 2019)
“Universe“
“3005” (first time since 2019)
“Funny” (first time since 2019)
“Insane“
“Babylon” (first time since 2019)
“Enemy” (first time since 2019)
“Guns Are Loaded“
“Addicted To The Violence” (live debut)
“Serious” (first time since 2019)
“Cute Machines“
“Chemicals“
“Sickening Wars“
“Exploding/Reloading“
“Stoner Hate“
“They Say“
Some fan-filmed footage from that set can be found below. Meanwhile, this week has found Malakian on the receiving end of heated criticism following the release of a lyric video for his track “Your Lives Burn“. Despite the song being released in July, it was that provocative visual clip that newly put it on people’s radar.
Flying at odds with the political activism vocalist Serj Tankian injected into much of System Of A Down‘s identity, Malakian instead presented a more centrist/neutral approach to an extent on that song. While his refusal to align with one distinct side of the political spectrum on that track infuriated some, the quality of the song itself was called into question by others.
Malakian has been engaging with some of his detractors via his personal Instagram post for that track, stating in the comments of that post, “All these years you knew why I was sick of the right. Now you can see through these comments why I’m sick of the left as well.”
Malakian also fired back at criticisms over the quality of his music. One individual commented, ‘Glad people realizing how shit these lyrics are. ‘Lives‘ and ‘Angry Guru‘ were some of the worst songs I’ve sat through'”. Malakian directly replied, “I heard you are an amazing lyricist. Let’s hear your latest masterpiece.”
Another comment thread that elicited a reply from Malakian started off with a post from an individual that stated, “The people in the comments getting mad at him are proving his point i fear”. Another user chimed in with, “How dare we have an opinion when someone expresses a dumbass opinion. We must be like the nazis or sumthin.”
It was that post that caused Malakian to issue a direct response. He stated, “You’re not that different. Opposite sides of the same extremist coin. Which is why some of you cheer when someone on the other side gets assassinated. The Nazis thought the people who disagreed with them had dumbass opinions too. They also cheered when the opposition got killed. You both suck.”
