During the January 23 episode of SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” SYSTEM OF A DOWN bassist Shavarsh “Shavo” Odadjian discussed the recent announcement that the band has added second shows to their massive, one-of-a-kind stadium events this year.
The 2025 North American tour will begin with two nights at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on August 27-28, featuring special guests KORN. The tour will then move to Soldier Field in Chicago for shows on August 31 and September 1 with AVENGED SEVENFOLD, and conclude at Rogers Stadium in Toronto on September 3 and September 5 with DEFTONES.
“Literally within a few hours we sold out every show, and it was a shock to us,” Shavo said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “But I’m very glad that the stadiums were available near those dates. We had a band conference that it sold out. My manager hit us up. He’s, like, ‘Dude, you guys sold it all out.’ … It floored me. People are, like, ‘Why should it be so surprising to you?’ Everyone sees us a certain way. I still see us as that band from Hollywood. I’m not seeing us as this giant band that could sell out MetLife twice, two nights in a row. Football stadiums, bro. So, we decided, ‘Let’s add another show to each.’ And we put it out there the next day and those sold out too.”
When asked why SYSTEM OF A DOWN is limiting their performances to just three cities this time, Shavo explained: “We haven’t played a lot together for a while. We’ve been doing one or two shows a year since 2017. So, the relationships were not as great as they are now. It’s just everybody wasn’t on the same page. We’ve been talking. Everything’s great, knock on wood. Everyone’s happy. So we decided to test the waters and play some shows. And that’s what it is. There is no strategy to it, there’s no plan to do the rest of the world just yet. I’m not saying it’s not gonna happen; I’m not saying it is gonna happen. We told each other, ‘Let’s play it by ear, do these shows, see how we feel afterwards. If we don’t wanna do any more, we don’t do any more. If we wanna do more, we’ll do more.’ There’s no heavy responsibility on anyone, because I feel like a lot of it is just thinking too much, overthinking what could happen.”
“Bad experiences have happened to certain people, and they kind of hold that as PTSD, I think,” he continued. “And now that things are better, we’re older, we’re, like, ‘Dude, no pressure, bro. Let’s just do it. If we like it, we do. If we don’t like it, we [don’t].’ ‘Cause you know what? Serj [Tankian, SYSTEM OF A DOWN vocalist] had a great time at Sick New World [festival in Las Vegas] last year. We had such an amazing, fun show and everyone left the stage hugging. And so he called back, he’s, like, ‘Dude, I loved it. Let’s do more of these.’ So that’s where that happened. We’re, like, ‘Let’s go.’ As long as everyone is down. Daron [Malakian, SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist] was down. So we decided, ‘Let’s test the waters. Let’s not just go full blast and start doing months. Let’s just test the waters with three shows.’ Those three shows turned to six.”
When asked about the challenges of gearing up SYSTEM OF A DOWN to perform at a stadium level for only six shows, Shavo responded: “We can do it. Look, for the last few years, we’ve been doing one or two shows. And we go and we rehearse two weeks for one show. I think that’s not smart. So six shows is better than one show to me. I’ll take it. I’ll take it, and I’m not gonna ask for more. I want it to happen organically. I think our band is that band — we can’t be told what to do. The more we push each other to do something, the less we do. So I figure the less we push, the more we’ll do. It should be done because we wanna do it, we love to do it, and that’s why we do it.”
SYSTEM OF A DOWN is also set to perform a series of stadium concerts across South America next spring. The “Wake Up!” tour kicks off on April 24 in Bogotá, Colombia, and wraps up on May 10 in São Paulo, Brazil. You can check those dates here.
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