{"id":83223,"date":"2026-07-15T03:59:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/83223\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T03:59:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:59:49","slug":"system-of-a-down-live-in-london-review-a-qotsa-featuring-oasis-baiting-circle-pit-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/83223\/","title":{"rendered":"System Of A Down live in London review: A QOTSA-featuring, Oasis-baiting, circle pit party"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe have a song about a tapeworm,\u201d beams System Of A Down<\/a> guitarist Daron Malakian, introducing the wild polka of \u2018Needles\u2019. \u201cToday, I\u2019m going to name the tapeworm \u2018Oasis<\/a>\u2019,\u201d he continues, before inciting 50,000 pumped-up fans in a bellowing chant of \u201cPUUUULL OASIS OUT OF YOUR ASS\u201d. It\u2019s a decades-long feud after Noel Gallagher<\/a> famously told US radio in the early \u201800s of his relief after first hearing SOAD, thinking: \u201cI\u2019m actually alive to hear the shittiest band of all time.\u201d Ouch.<\/p>\n

When Noel made those comments at the height of \u2018Toxicity\u2019, none could have predicted the trajectory of these Armenian-American political metal weirdos. Disbanding in 2006 after reaching arena level after five acclaimed albums, before returning to endless festival rounds in 2010, we now find ourselves here. With only a couple of new songs<\/a> and a well-known struggle to make a follow-up album<\/a>, it\u2019s largely down to TikTok and viral footage of the circle pit mania<\/a> they inspire that they find themselves selling out stadiums across Europe in 2026 \u2013 that same phenomenon that now has Deftones<\/a> and KoRn back at the top of bills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Themselves an arena-filling, festival-headlining rock beast, Queens Of The Stone Age<\/a> acting as opener only heightens the sense of occasion. You\u2019ll rarely catch them on a stage with the sun still beating down, but they seize that moment by coming out to Starlight Vocal Band\u2019s feel-good classic \u2018Afternoon Delight\u2019 over footage of Josh Homme and co\u2019s faces warping like a bad acid trip.<\/p>\n

They intersperse the hard-raging bangers like \u2018Sick, Sick, Sick\u2019, \u2018My God Is The Sun\u2019 and \u2018Little Sister\u2019 with some of their more desert-wandering esoteric numbers like \u2018Regular John\u2019, \u2018The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died\u2019 and \u2018Run, Pig, Run\u2019, which seems a smart move. It showcases a lesser-sung side of QOTSA while complementing the weirder edges of SOAD and ultimately controls the temperature to keep folk from killing each other. Then, the crowds spiral for the brutal one-two-three punch closing of \u2018Go With The Flow\u2019, \u2018No One Knows\u2019 and \u2018A Song For The Dead\u2019 as an on-fire Homme calls upon London to \u201cmake yourself a night you\u2019ll never remember.\u201d We oblige.<\/p>\n

\"QueensQueens Of The Stone Age live at London\u2019s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Credit: Alex Morton<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are System Of A Down from Los Angeles, California via Armenia, and this is the System Of A Down style of rock\u2019n\u2019roll,\u201d offers Malakian. From the soulful lament of fallen warriors on opener \u2018Soldier Side\u2019 and the mass furious questioning of \u201cWhy do they always send the poor?\u201d on \u2018B.Y.O.B.\u2019 atop visuals calling out our modern passive approach to \u2018HUMAN SUFFERING, NOW IN 4K!\u2019, it\u2019s clear from the opening that this ain\u2019t gonna be your standard stadium fare.<\/p>\n

Whether barking back frontman Serj Tankian<\/a>\u2019s lines about \u201cabolishing mandatory minimum sentences\u201d in turning the US into one giant prison, or \u2018Deer Dance\u2019 calling out police brutality (\u201cPushing little children with their fully-automatics, they like to push the weak around\u201d), the audience came to mosh to a message \u2013 and there aren\u2019t a lot of bands offering that right now. \u201cPardon us for being angry,\u201d Malakian apologises, \u201cbut the world is kinda fucked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tankian, Malakian and bassist Shavo Odadjian play like they\u2019re all competing to be frontman, with drummer John Dolmayan the stone-faced wall at the back. Spirits are high in the band, with even a tender \u201cI love you man\u201d from the guitarist to the singer. We may not need a new album with enough nights like this. Give us that absolutely crazy reaction to \u2018Chop Suey\u2019, the fevered dance of \u2018Bounce\u2019 and the spine-chilling respite of \u2018Spiders\u2019 over and over.<\/p>\n

\"SystemSystem Of A Down live at London\u2019s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Credit: Clemente Ruiz<\/p>\n

Tonight is similar to Oasis only in that every single person in this place is going totally ape-shit from start to finish, but System Of A Down ultimately defy and redefine what stadium rock is and can be. The circle pits don\u2019t relent throughout, but we know what we\u2019ve been waiting for. \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen this part of the show before on Instagram or bullshitgram,\u201d says Malakian before another viral-worthy series of human whirlpools kick off for \u2018Toxicity\u2019 into closer \u2018Sugar\u2019. \u201cDo you feel the moment?\u201d he yells. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about. And that you were lucky enough to be alive to see SOAD smash a stadium. Shove that up your ass.<\/p>\n

Queens Of The Stone Age played:<\/p>\n

\u2018Regular John\u2019
\u2018The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret\u2019
\u2018Do It Again\u2019
\u2018Sick, Sick, Sick\u2019
\u2018The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died\u2019
\u2018Paper Machete\u2019
\u2018My God Is the Sun\u2019
\u2018Run, Pig, Run\u2019
\u2018Little Sister\u2019
\u2018Go With The Flow\u2019
\u2018No One Knows\u2019
\u2018A Song for the Dead\u2019<\/p>\n

\"SystemSystem Of A Down live at London\u2019s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Credit: Clemente Ruiz<\/p>\n

System Of A Down played:<\/p>\n

\u2018Soldier Side \u2013 Intro\u2019
\u2018B.Y.O.B.\u2019
\u2018Suite-Pee\u2019
\u2018Chic \u2018N\u2019 Stu\u2019
\u2018Prison Song\u2019
\u2018Aerials\u2019
\u2018I-E-A-I-A-I-O\u2019
\u2018Innervision\u2019
\u2018Darts\u2019
\u2018Genocidal Humanoidz\u2019
\u2018Needles\u2019
\u2018Deer Dance\u2019
\u2018Radio\/Video\u2019
\u2018Dreaming\u2019
\u2018Hypnotize\u2019
\u2018ATWA\u2019
\u2018Bounce\u2019
\u2018Suggestions\u2019
\u2018Psycho\u2019
\u2018Chop Suey!\u2019
\u2018Lonely Day\u2019
\u2018Lost in Hollywood\u2019
\u2018Streamline\u2019
\u2018Spiders\u2019
\u2018Forest\u2019
\u2018DAM\u2019
\u2018War?\u2019
\u2018Roulette\u2019
\u2018Toxicity\u2019
\u2018Sugar\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have a song about a tapeworm,\u201d beams System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian, introducing the wild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[27,6513],"class_list":["post-83223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-london","tag-rock"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116921999352335110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}