Fresno Bee (California)
October 7, 2005, Friday FINAL EDITION

All systems go System of a Down takes its Armenian heritage and
politics seriously as it gears up for a Fresno concert.

Mike Osegueda The Fresno Bee

It was a Tuesday. System of a Down had finished a show at Cleveland
State University the night before. It was an off day.

Well, it was supposed to be.

If not for a promise that lead singer Serj Tankian made to his
grandfather before the band left in August for its 10-week tour,
System of a Down would have been relaxing in a hotel room or shooting
a video or doing whatever touring bands do on their days off.

But System of a Down is not like other rock bands. Far from it.

Instead, Tankian and the band were in Batavia, Ill., outside the
office of Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., leading a rally to persuade
the speaker of the House to put a resolution on the House’s floor
that would recognize the Armenian genocide.

Joined by members of the Armenian National Committee of America, the
Armenian Youth Federation and Tankian’s Axis of Justice organization,
the chart-topping metal band (all of whom are of Armenian descent)
added star power to the rally, which included Tankian reading a
letter he delivered to Hastert urging the congressman to put the bill
to a vote.

“When I left town,” Tankian says by phone two days after the
incident, backstage before a show in Detroit, “I saw my grandfather,
he’s about 97 years old — we really don’t even know his actual age
because all the documents were lost and we guessed his age based on
his memories — and you know, I promised him that I’d try to get a
hold of Dennis Hastert. It’s a personal thing for me. It’s not a
political thing.”

That message is sure to resonate with people in Fresno, with the band
visiting Tuesday for a concert at the Save Mart Center.

Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, the bill in question
would formally call the Ottoman Empire’s killing of 1.5 million
Armenians after World War I a genocide.

It already was passed by the bipartisan House International Relations
Committee.

“When I read about that, I thought, ‘OK, it’s back to Dennis
Hastert’s hands,’ ” Tankian says. “This has happened before. We’ve
had a resolution in Congress regarding the genocide in 2000 and 2004.
Both times he didn’t bring it up to the House floor. The first time,
[then-President] Clinton had written him a letter saying that our
interests in Turkey could be endangered and stuff like that.

“This is the third opportunity. We wanted to go there and encourage
him to bring it to the House floor. It’s something that needs to come
out.”

And if you’re asking what all this had to do with a concert, then
you’ve obviously never listened to a System of a Down CD.

Like Rage Against the Machine before them, System of a Down has
accumulated a massive fan base behind both a roaring metal sound and
conscious-minded lyrics.

The band’s latest album, “Mezmerize,” (which debuted at No. 1 on the
charts, selling 800,000 copies in its first week) is full of opinion.
Pick a topic: war, religion, politics, Hollywood, sex, drugs and,
yes, genocide.

Unlike someone such as Kanye West, whose out-of-nowhere comments
about President Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina are now
infamous, System of a Down is in-your-face political on stage, in the
studio and in real life.

“We’ve always done what we wanted to do, myself and the band, what’s
in our hearts socially, politically, musically,” Tankian says. “It’s
difficult because when you talk about politics they make you a
political band and forget about the depth of your art. However, the
Armenian genocide is a personal issue; it’s not political.”

In Fresno, System of a Down is a highly talked-about band. People say
they know them, met them once, their cousin knows the drummer, that
kind of stuff.

Makes sense, considering System’s heritage. Many Armenian fans in
Fresno take it a step further and have a sense of ownership over the
band, seeing as how famous musicians of Armenian descent in the
American mainstream are limited to Cher.

“When we see someone like System of a Down make it — being that
they’re first-generation, they’ve come from the same place a lot of
Armenians here have come from — to see them do well almost connects
all the Armenians from all these different places,” says Vartan
Hekimian, 28, of Fresno. “I’m glad they speak up.”

Of this relationship with the band’s Armenian fans, Tankian says:
“It’s really great when people can feel a part of your music and feel
a part of your ethos. It’s a special connection.”

Despite both of System of a Down’s overt traits — being political
and being Armenian — Tankian says the band is not constricted to
these things. It’s not two-dimensional. That’s selling System short.

“If you listen to our music,” he says. “You can’t really say it’s
Armenian music. You can’t. But there is a certain melancholy that I
think comes from our people that exists in our music, that is a
characteristic of our music. But there’s other many other shades,
colors, characters and things that define System of a Down.”

The reporter can be reached at mosegueda@fresnobee.com or (559)
441-6479.

INFOBOX

If you go

What: System of a Down in concert with Mars Volta and Hella

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Save Mart Center

Tickets: $32.50, $37.50 and $45

For more info: (559) 347-3400 or

GRAPHIC: SONY System of a Down (from left, Daron Malakian, John
Dolmayan, Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian) is held in high esteem by
many in the Valley’s Armenian community.