Back on July 20th of 2018 Scars on Broadway released Dictator, the first album of material since the eponymous album was released almost exactly a decade earlier. I read somewhere that the band was now officially known as Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway instead of just Scars on Broadway because he always envisioned different lineups from album to album. Apparently the “new” album was written and recorded right around the time I last saw them in 2012 but not released until recently basically because Daron did not know what was going on with System of a Down.
All it took was one listen to Dictator to make a fan out of me. While I was in Hawaii in December I received an email announcing that Scars on Broadway were playing the Wiltern so I immediately sent out the bat signal to find out who would be in for a little trip to Hell-A. Larry and Bob answered the call of duty and tickets were purchased.
This was already the third trip of the year to la la land for me but I was in great company to see a great band and had only been to the Wiltern one other time to see Marilyn Manson way back in 2004. This trip could have been avoided altogether because sometime after we purchased our tickets there was a show announced in North Park for March 3rd. This slightly irked the others but that show was on a Sunday and our show was on a Friday, which gave us a license to get loose, especially since the hotel we booked was literally across the street.
Long story short we ended up spending an asinine amount of money on beer at the venue after spending $85 at Ralphs for our pre-party and even more money on beer and sake across the street at Kashira Sushi. We arrived at the Wiltern about five minutes before Scars went on and the place was packed. The show was general admission but it was also sold out. Rather than have to fight our way through the crowd just to be sardined for two hours Larry took it upon himself to inquire about VIP tables. Next thing I know we were following him to a table in an area on the floor that allowed us to stretch out and have a waiter.
Scars on Broadway were killer. Daron Malakian is not only an amazing guitar player and songwriter but also knows how to pump up a crowd. It did not hurt that they played damn near every song in their entire two album catalog. In fact the only song I don’t remember being played was “Assimilate” but then again I did have a lot of beer but seemingly not as much as Bob who puked under our table during the last song. Good times.
SETLIST: Animal, Sickening Wars, Fucking, Chemicals, Dictator, Kill Each Other/Live Forever, Guns Are Loaded, Enemy (with cover of China Girl by Iggy Pop during the breakdown), Scars on Broadway, World Long Gone, Serious, Funny, Universe, 3005, Angry Guru, Lives, Never Forget, We Won’t Obey, Insane, Hungry Ghost, Babylon, Gie Mou, Whoring Streets, Talkin’ Shit, Till the End, Fuck and Kill, Exploding/Reloading, Stoner Hate, Cute Machines, They Say
