Deftones performed at their first ever one-day event as part of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Concert Series. Eric Anna-Murray/Another Planet Entertainment
Audience members during the Viagra Boys’ performance at the Golden Gate Park Concert Series in San Francisco on Saturday, August 17.
Eric Annamurray/Another Planet Entertainment Attendees at the Golden Gate Park Concert Series on Saturday, Aug. 17. Priscilla Rodriguez/Another Planet Entertainment
Armenian-American heavy metal band System of a Down will perform at San Francisco’s sold-out Golden Gate Park Concert Series on Saturday, August 17th.
Skylar Green/Another Planet Entertainment
Armenian-American heavy metal band System of a Down will perform at San Francisco’s sold-out Golden Gate Park Concert Series on Saturday, August 17th.
Andrew Rosas/Another Planet Entertainment
Deftones will perform at the sold-out Golden Gate Park Concert Series in San Francisco on Saturday, August 17th.
Scrya Green/Another Planet Entertainment
Despite overcast skies and occasional light rain on an unusually humid San Francisco summer day, 50,000 fans gathered in Golden Gate Park for the second weekend in a row, this time for a historic concert featuring rare appearances by heavy metal rock band System of a Down and Northern California legends Deftones.
The outdoor event on Saturday, August 17, also featured performances by the Mars Volta, Viagra Boys and The Vows, drawing a crowd that was a stark contrast to the Gen Z fans who flocked to see pop stars like The Killers, Sabrina Carpenter and Chapel Roan at Outside Lands, but those concertgoers were just as enthusiastic.
“The day I heard this was happening, it became my plan for the summer,” Katie August, 29, who traveled all the way from Chicago to see System of a Down for the first time, told the Chronicle.
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After waiting in line for more than an hour at one of the few merch tents on Saturday, she acknowledged that watching the Viagra Boys perform on a giant screen rather than cheering them on from the stands “wasn’t ideal,” but said it was more important to her to “have a piece of history at my first performance in the system.”
And the Grammy Award-winning Armenian-American rock band did not disappoint.
Armenian-American heavy metal band System of a Down will perform at San Francisco’s sold-out Golden Gate Park Concert Series on Saturday, August 17th.
Andrew Rosas/Another Planet Entertainment
The throwback set is the latest in an ongoing partnership between the City of San Francisco and promoters Another Planet Entertainment, whose producers Outside Lands also hosted a surprise outdoor concert featuring Skrillex and Fred Again in front of San Francisco City Hall in May of this year. Captivating a crowd at the Polo Field and led by frontman Serj Tankian’s distinctive voice, System of a Down performed an 80-minute set on the festival’s main stage last weekend.
Of course, it would have been nice to hear more of the band — opening the show with a song about genocide (“Genocidal Humanoidz”) without addressing the violence happening in the world right now felt like a missed opportunity — but ultimately, Saturday’s performance was a welcome respite from politics in an already tension-filled year.
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With the exception of Cedric Bixler-Zavala, singer of the Texas progressive rock band The Mars Volta, who shouted “Liberate Palestine!” onstage, the five bands that performed livened up the day with nothing but rock music.
After a sparse but fun opening act by Australian death-pop band VOWWS, Swedish punk-rock joke band Viagra Boys got the fans going. Lead singer Sebastian Murphy, who moved to Stockholm as a teenager, proudly proclaimed his San Francisco roots and, despite the fog, sang excerpts from “Sports” while doing shirtless push-ups onstage.
Fans watch the Deftones perform at the Golden Gate Park Concert Series in San Francisco. Skylar Green/Another Planet Entertainment
It was also a good warm-up for the crowd, who continued enjoying the music of Texas progressive rock band The Mars Volta, as Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez continued the strange musical dance they first began in 1994 as the now-disbanded At the Drive-In, playing selections from the group’s limited back catalogue.
But it was clear that nearly everyone standing on the polo field was looking forward to the final two acts of the night.
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System of a Down, who reached the height of their popularity during the alt-rock radio boom of the late ’90s and early 2000s, infamously found out on the morning of September 11, 2001, when their sophomore album, Toxicity, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while Deftones won their first Grammy in 2000 for Best Metal Performance for the single “Elite” from their breakthrough third album, White Pony.
For Hector Garcia, 53, of Oakland, the night marked at least his 20th time seeing Deftones. Wearing a well-worn band shirt from a Deftones show at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center in 2000, Garcia was one of many in the audience looking forward to seeing the veteran band from Sacramento as the night’s closing attraction.
“I’ve never seen the system, so I have to keep my cool for them,” he told Midday, “but when I see Chino, it blows my mind.”
In many ways, the feeling was mutual: Deftones’ lead singer, Chino Moreno, was beaming throughout the band’s performance, despite singing the band’s characteristically melancholic lyrics.
“I recognize some of you guys… Yes I do,” he said with a laugh, gesturing to the screaming fans at the front of the stage, “It’s so beautiful.”
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Despite their undoubted popularity, Deftones have received little attention as a band that sonically bridges the gap between mainstream rock and the sonic gimmicks of bands like Tool. While showcasing their enduring talents as an impressive, powerful, devastating mass of sound, Moreno, lead guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham and keyboardist Frank Delgado demonstrated a deep affinity for their fans in both effort and consideration.
Audience members listen to Deftones perform at the Golden Gate Park Concert Series in San Francisco. Andrew Rosas/Another Planet Entertainment
“If you see someone down, help them up,” Moreno reminded the crowd during a short break. “I want everyone to have a great day!”
Closing with a triumphant triumph of “Change (In the House of Flies),” “Genesis” and “7 Words,” Deftones were the perfect appetizer for System of a Down’s final night performance.
It was truly historic, and no surprise considering the band has only played around 20 shows since the release of their 2005 double album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize. The 25-song setlist was one pumping burst of pure adrenaline, featuring hits and rarities from their nearly 30-year catalog. Despite their well-publicized differences, Tankian, Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan proved they’re still as good as ever, performing everything from smash hit singles like 2001’s “Chop Suey” and “Aerials” to 2005’s “BYOB.” and surprise classics like “Mr. Jack,” “PLUCK” and “Know.”
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In response, the entire audience pogoed and sang along to every word of even the most difficult songs. Mosh pits formed all over the Polo Field and then quickly disappeared like tide pools, leaving behind only bubbles of sweat-soaked shirts.
Following the group’s final number, the rousing fan-favorite “Sugar,” Another Planet Entertainment’s first foray into a two-week music event in Golden Gate Park was clearly a success.
Similar to Goldenvoice’s experiment with the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, where they hosted a metal weekend before founding their country festival Stagecoach and eventually added a second weekend to Coachella, the seeds may have been sown for even more mosh pits in future San Francisco summers.
Zach Raskin is a freelance writer.