SYSTEM OF A DOWN‘s free HOLLYWOOD concert was pulled minutes before the band were due to perform late last night (September 3) as hundreds of rampaging fans started a riot, storming and wrecking the stage and bringing a tear gas and plastic bullet response from police.
The band had been due to play in an area fenced off for 3,500 fans next to Vynyl nightclub, yards from Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. According to Reuters, 10,000 people were at the event. A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson explained that fans unable to gain access stormed the barricades and rushed the stage. Fire and safety officers immediately pulled the show and called the police. System Of A Down offered to play if it would help restore calm, but by then fans had swarmed onto the stage, toppling speaker stacks and damaging or stealing the rest of the band’s equipment.
Around 160 officers, some on horseback, dispersed the crowd. Six people were arrested, one for assault with a deadly weapon.
Cars and windows in nearby businesses were smashed and adjacent streets were left looking like a “war zone”, according to some concertgoers.
System Of A Down release new album ‘Toxicity’ in the US today (September 4). The album charted at number 13 in the UK on Sunday (September 2).