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Benefit Concert Souls 2004 Raises Awareness

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  • Benefit Concert Souls 2004 Raises Awareness

    New University, CA
    May 2 2004


    Benefit Concert Souls 2004 Raises Awareness

    by: Christina Nersesian


    Courtesy Of Soul 2004

    The Soul 2004 concert was created to spread Armenian Genocide
    awareness.

    System of a Down took the legendary Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on
    April 24, and made the entire place like their own home. It was as if
    the band threw this huge event and each band member invited all of
    their friends, cousins and their friends, parents' friends and pretty
    much the entire society living in the diasporas of Southern California.

    The members of System of a Down - vocalist and front man Serj Tankian,
    guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John
    Dolmayan, all of Armenian descent - lost family during the Armenian
    Genocide. The band's Souls 2004 Benefit Concert was set for April 24,
    Genocide Commemoration Day, for a reason.

    `The purpose of Souls 2004 is to further raise awareness of the
    Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey)
    in 1915, and help facilitate its formal recognition as a genocide by
    the federal government,' Tankian said.

    Joining System of a Down that day was Saul Williams, Bad Acid Trip, and
    Zach Hill, all of whom had donated their time for the event. Along with
    those performers several organizations - the International Association
    of Genocide Scholars, Facing History and Ourselves, the Center for
    Prevention of Genocide, Zoryan Institute, the Genocide Project, and the
    Armenian National Committed of America - who support the efforts of
    System of a Down were present with booths outside the venue. These
    organizations were the beneficiaries for the funds raised from the
    concert, Souls 2004.

    `[The name given to the concert], Souls 2004, is obvious,' Tankian
    explained. `It refers to the souls that have passed due to the
    genocide, and the concert was done on their behalf.'

    The cozy setting of the Greek Theatre seems the ideal place for
    concerts. Even back in the nosebleeds where most have to bring
    binoculars to catch a glimpse of the band playing, the setting of the
    Greek is one where even those are seats close enough to the action.
    Saturday's concert was sold out within the first day of ticket sales.
    This disappointed some unable to get tickets but there lies reason in
    everything System of a Down does.

    `We could have sold out the Staples Center,' Tankian said, `but decided
    on a more elegant, intimate venue for this benefit show. We haven't
    played [Los Angeles] in a while and have lots of fans excited to see
    another show.'

    The fans were very excited-most of all their Armenian fans, especially
    since the purpose of the show was to spark awareness about a cause very
    personal to their entire culture and ignored for so long.

    `My decision to attend the concert was two-fold,' explained Ararat
    Oganesyan, president of the Armenian Student Association at UCI, who
    had also attended the show. `Initially I wanted to attend a System
    concert, solely for my appreciation of their music, but when I was
    informed on their Genocide Commemoration benefit, I was excited because
    with a powerful day such as April 24, there was no doubt in my mind
    that it would be a special evening.'

    Before System of a Down actually went on stage, they showed an ABC
    special recorded in 1999 by Peter Jennings about the Armenian Genocide.
    The crowd showed a positive response, yet it is always hard to pick out
    the negative feedback in a setting like Saturday's. System of a Down
    did have a lot of energy geared towards the presentation of the
    Armenian culture, yet did their presentation include enough about their
    views on the Genocide? Was it sufficient enough for the fans who know
    about the Genocide to really feel their cause presented to the people?

    `I felt that they could have done a little more to present their own
    views on the Armenian Genocide,' Oganesyan explained, `because the
    audience, especially the ones who are ignorant on the topic would have
    listened to their every word, but some people I'm sure were turned off
    when they saw the special program on the projectors. But other then
    that I believe they did an awesome job.'

    The concert was not meant to be a culture shock to those who were not
    Armenian, but it did raise the awareness in some about this old culture
    with values and history just like any other.

    Souls 2004 brought out the young and the old. Some of the younger kids
    had their parents with them. Some of the older kids brought their
    parents with them as well, and sat them through that hard rock show
    just because of its purpose. Although the average parent would not
    approve of the way System of a Down runs their concerts, most parents
    there were too enthralled by the meaning and purpose of it all to care.


    To them, the parents who believe this current generation of Armenians
    is going downhill with remembering and keeping their culture, this
    concert proved them wrong. System of a Down, representatives of that
    generation which parents fear will lose and forget their past, showed
    what it was to remember. This crowd clearly demonstrated that they will
    not forget.

    `I never expected the show to be as good as it was,' Oganesyan said.
    `It was absolutely amazing. I took my friend Aramik's Armenian flag and
    throughout the concert I was waving it and on one instance I got really
    brave and began running up and around the isles waving it.'

    But why a concert? The issue of the Armenian Genocide has been burning
    in the hearts of Armenians for close to a hundred years now. One would
    think there are other ways to recognize the Genocide.

    Perhaps all those methods have been exhausted by now. With the fresh
    faces of System of a Down integrating both their Armenian culture and
    the American culture of the 20th century into their style, they were
    able to come up with a better way to commemorate by having a concert to
    bring together their fans and show them the history of the Armenian
    culture's struggle.

    System of a Down has been the high voice for the Armenian community in
    reaching out to the government for the cause of recognizing and
    accepting the Genocide. Although they are not a political action
    committee, the Genocide is a very personal cause for the band and their
    families so they work towards the recognition of those atrocities. This
    makes them sympathetic to other Genocides as well. And perhaps they
    utilize their worldwide recognition to approach government.

    `We've done lots of interviews talking about the denial of the genocide
    and the genocide itself,' Tankian said, `and have participated in a
    grass roots initiative to send out up to 100,000 postcards to the
    Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader to press them to
    introduce legislation to recommit the U.S. Congress to the Genocide
    convention which includes all modern 20th century genocides.'

    Most benefit concerts take place to help a contemporary cause. This is
    where proceeds go and show that money has physically helped the group
    and benefited their cause for need. The System of a Down concert did
    more than take profits and send them off to the needed organizations.
    They inspired the need to help in others, and made even the ignorant
    aware of what they needed to do.
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