As with many cities System of a Down have been touring through in 2025, it’s been over a decade since their fans in Toronto, Canada last got to see them perform live. The band is now twenty years removed from the last full-length album they released together, and yet the stages they’re able to perform on are the biggest they’ve ever been, with the music aging gracefully and being passed down to new generations of fans. With different band members either focused on their own ventures or simply enjoying the family life over the years, they seldom feel a need to go out on tour, and on those rare times they do tour, it’s usually for just a handful of shows of their choosing, as opposed to a large-scale world tour they could easily do if they wanted to. Some might say they’ve reached rock legend status with the way they choose when and where to perform live instead of having to rely on touring to better their careers.

After performing in select cities across South America during the spring, System of a Down have returned to North America to perform in just three cities: New York, Chicago, and now Toronto. The three concerts sold out immediately, and so they extended their stay in each city by adding a second show, this one being their first of two in Toronto. They’d be joined on tour by bands Polythia and Wisp, and they would have a different co-headliner for each city of the tour, with Deftones joining them for their Toronto shows. With this obviously being a Hip-Hop blog, I’ll admit I was unfamiliar with the openers, but at least recognized a few of Deftones’ hits while making the long walk to enter the stadium.

The Toronto shows would be taking place at Rogers Stadium, a newly built temporary open-air venue located on what used to be Downsview Airport, designed to host concerts with a 50,000-person capacity. Since we’re in the first year of this venue’s existence, I’ll give a full breakdown of the experience.

With no parking on-site, fans had to either take transit or park their cars at one of three TTC or GO Train stations in the area. Regardless if you were coming from Downsview Station, Sheppard West Station, or Wilson Station, direct paths to the venue were either fenced or barricaded off, making the advertised 10-minute walk closer to 30 minutes in reality. Once you enter through the first set of gates, there’s a large fan plaza outside of the stadium itself with plenty of merch, food and drink vendors, plus activities including a Ferris wheel. If you work a full-time day job and didn’t take time off work to go early, there was no way to partake in this with gates opening at 4pm and bands starting to perform from 5:30. We actually missed most of the bands performing and got to the stadium mid-way through Deftones’ set; I could hear them rocking “My Own Summer (Shut It)” as I entered the gates.

While the food and drinks were expected to be overpriced, the food was especially low value for the dollar you’re paying. An $18 burger was the same quality as a $5 smash burger at Farm Boy, and that’s without any sides; we had to buy a $13 poutine to make it a full meal and found it lacking enough gravy to truly be considered a poutine. There were food trucks parked outside the gates and we were left wondering if maybe we would have been better off eating with them before entering the venue – something we may have done if we weren’t in a rush to get inside. After having a meal, we got some drinks and made our way to our seats as Deftones continued their set. The stadium looked about a third way empty and from our vantage point up in the stands, you could see plenty of fans still walking the long path to get to the gates, but the fans who were there to catch Deftones were energized, with mosh pits and crowd surfing starting early.

The stadium eventually filled up with fans of all ages, from OGs full of gray hair to teenagers and even parents holding babies, and it would be time for System of a Down to rock once the sun set!

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Daron Malakian would come out first on his own, and he’d set things off with “Soldier Side Intro” off of the band’s Mezmerize album, the lyrics “welcome to the soldier side, where there’s no one here but me” fitting the moment perfectly. The rest of the band would join him, with Shavo Odadjian on bass, John Dolmayan on drums (although you couldn’t see him or his drum set from our side angle), and of course Serj Tankian on lead vocals, and they’d continue right into track two off Mezmerize, rocking the Grammy award-winning hit “B.Y.O.B.” The mosh pits on the floor were open right from the beginning, as we went from grooving to Serj’s hook to raging to Daron’s bridge on the song. The band would continue to pick the energy up by performing the opening tracks off their first two albums, doing “Suite-Pee” off of System of a Down followed by the epic “Prison Song” from Toxicity, building up the intensity by dragging out the intro. I was hoping they’d continue with track one off of Hypnotize, “Attack,” but sadly this song was left off the setlist.

With 2001’s Toxicity arguably being System of a Down’s biggest album, also celebrating its 24th anniversary just one day after this concert, the band would lean heavily into that album, performing both the hit singles and deep album cuts. The crowd would sing along to the album’s closer “Aerials,” and the mosh pits would be in full effect for high-energy bangers like “Science,” “Needles” and “Deer Dance.” While the hit records are always appreciated, I was especially hyped to see some of my favourite deep cuts get performed throughout the setlist, as they next took it back to their 1998 debut with “Darts,” Serj visibly having fun doing his range of different voices and even throwing in some cat sounds as he sang.

After several back-to-back certified mosh pit starters, System would tone down the aggression for the next few songs. Daron would encourage fans to dance as they got into the groovy “Radio/Video” off Mezmerize, and they’d finally pull out some Hypnotize tracks, with the bridge from “Dreaming” transitioning to the upbeat title track from that album. Their trip to 2005 would be brief through, as they’d go right back to the Toxicity classics, doing the infectious “ATWA” that you couldn’t help but join in on, followed by the high-energy “Bounce” that got the entire stadium jumping.

System of a Down would sprinkle in another day-one throwback into the setlist with “Suggestions,” Serj again having fun with his high pitched parts of the song, before going back to doing a classic Toxicity routine. They’d do a full performance of “Psycho” with Daron extending his guitar solo at the end of the song while spinning around in a circle. Those familiar with the routine knew to clap to the beat as that guitar solo eventually turned into the opening riff from System’s biggest song, “Chop Suey!,” and the whole stadium got locked in for the massive hit, clapping to the beat and joining Serj on the chorus and bridge. For most fans, seeing “Chop Suey!” live had to be a bucket list item with the way it’s aged to become more famous over the years.

With Serj’s vocals being the most prominent throughout Toxicity, especially with the emotional ending to “Chop Suey!,” the band would pull back and let Daron take the spotlight. With just himself and his guitar, Daron would do a short cover of Merle Haggard’s 1966 record “I’m A Lonesome Fugitive,” singing the lyrics “I’m on the run, the highway is my home.” I was hopeful this would turn into another one of my favourite System songs, “Highway Song,” but rather than following the lyric, Daron would follow the tone of the guitar riff to transition into the Hypnotize hit “Lonely Day.” This ’05 segment would be Daron’s to shine on, as he’d rock on lead vocals and the band would join in, following “Lonely Day” with “Lost In Hollywood,” John remixing the drums with Daron’s dark guitar riff to start the song. They’d close out this 2005 segment with another fan-favourite deep cut, the moody “Tentative,” which displays the perfect balance and harmony between Serj and Daron’s respective vocals, although for this performance Serj took the high notes towards the end of the song.

That would be the last we heard from 2005’s Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums, as the setlist from here on out would be for the day-one fans. Shavo would get a bit of shine as he began this segment with a solo bass guitar riff, the sharp-eared fans catching on to the 1998 throwback that would turn into a rollercoaster of energy: “Mind.” Daron would add some colour to the song with his own improvised guitar riffs, and Serj looked visibly excited to be rocking the throwback, going from whispering to full metal screams throughout the song, mosh pits breaking out multiple times. Serj & Daron would both fall to the ground as they hit that last note on the epic 7-minute monster, and John would hilariously run down from his drum set to help Daron back up as Serj & Shavo closed out the song with the quiet riffs and whispers.

The throwbacks would continue as they followed up “Mind” with a more obscure track from their early demo tapes, “DAM,” which I hadn’t heard before this show but loved the killer guitar riff Daron had on it. To close out the show, System would rock back-to-back mosh pit starters, performing “War?” followed by “Toxicity” and “Sugar.” Taking some advice from friends who’ve been to Rogers Stadium for past concerts, we got a head start making our way to the exits during these last few songs, just reaching the gate as System got to the breakdown at the end of “Sugar” and the rest of the stadium started to clear out.

Just as it was seeing them at Molson Amphitheatre back in 2015, System of a Down put on an epic performance with a highly satisfying setlist. While they didn’t do any songs off of 2002’s Steal This Album or their latest singles from 2020, Protect The Land/Genocidal Humanoidz, each of their core albums got fair representation, with Toxicity getting the most shine as it should on its anniversary. Serj of course doesn’t have the same gruffness in his voice that he once did when he recorded some of these songs, but he’s still able to adapt his approach on the mic and get the crowd involved to still make it an epic performance. Daron also has infectious energy on stage, often directly addressing the crowd to get everyone hyped up, all while putting on a masterful display on guitar. You could tell the band as a whole has genuine excitement to be performing live, knowing how rare it is to get all the members to agree to do shows, and that excitement feeds into the crowd.

Overall, Rogers Stadium was a decent venue for the concert but it does have its pros and cons. Obviously it’s the only venue Toronto has that can hold 50,000 people and isn’t occupied by the Blue Jays throughout the summer, but the isolated pathways to get there from the closest parking lots and transit stations make it a pain both entering and exiting, potentially adding an extra 30-60 minutes to your commute depending on the crowd. Fans shouldn’t have to strategically leave while the concert is still going in order to be able to hit the road or train tracks in a timely fashion. Also for a venue designed specifically for concerts, I would have expected the sound quality to be better, as the sound mix seemed a bit off, or possibly the speaker systems were too little and too far away from those seated up in the stands. Besides these negatives, if you pack your patience and you truly love the band that’s performing, Rogers Stadium will still be a fun time during the event itself.

With no other tour dates announced, System of a Down’s second show in Toronto September 5th may be the last time in a long time we’ll see them in Canada, tickets can be found here!

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