System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian joined a tribute band for a spontaneous cover of ‘Cigaro’ in Chicago over the weekend – watch footage below.
- READ MORE: System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian: “We are not living in a just world”
The legendary metal band have toured intermittently since ending their hiatus in 2011, and are currently embarking on a series of shows across North and South America. These have so far included a stop with KoRn at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey last week (August 28), a show at the Soldier Field Stadium in Chicago with Avenged Sevenfold on Sunday (August 31).
Ahead of the latter performance, Malakian was wandering around the local area and overheard a cover band taking on 2001 track ‘Needles’ in a bar nearby Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
As can be seen in clips shared to social media, his curiosity was piqued, and he went into the venue and surprised the band on stage, assisting them on the ‘Mezmerize’ track and taking selfies with the crowd.
Later, taking to Instagram, Malakian told fans the moment was entirely unplanned and said it was “one of the coolest moments I’ve ever had”.
“We didn’t plan on going to Wrigley Field, but we ended up there,” he wrote. “While we were taking photos in front of the stadium I heard the intro to ‘Needles’ from a bar across the street. My cousin who was with me said that he thought it was karaoke.
“I decided to walk across the street and go into the bar and found that it was a System Of A Down cover band called Peephole. I walked right to the front of the stage and surprised the band and the audience. This was all so spontaneous. The look on everyone’s faces was priceless. To be honest, I was just as surprised as anyone else was that this was happening.
He said he couldn’t imagine “what a shock it was for everyone there” because it happened so fast. “The odds of this happening were so slim,” he added. “Probably had a better chance of getting struck by lightning.”
“So many stars had to align for me to end up at the right place and right time. One of the coolest moments I’ve ever had. I’ll always remember this night, and I’m sure everyone that was there will never forget it either,” he added.
The band are next set to play the Rogers Stadium in Toronto with Deftones on Wednesday (September 3).
Previous shows on the recent run of shows have have seen System Of A Down pay tribute to late heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne. 20 songs into their set in New Jersey, Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian and co. performed their cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Snowblind’ for the first time in 23 years in Ozzy’s memory.
Malakian said before the performance: “The Ozzfest. We did a few Ozzfests, some of you are old enough that you were there. Some of you weren’t even born yet. I want to thank Ozzy Osbourne. We want to thank Ozzy Osbourne.”
In other news, Tankian has announced a new album titled ‘Covers, Collaborations & Collages’. Due for release on October 24, the record will consist of previously unreleased cover songs, collaborations, and other tracks. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
