Scars On Broadway, the band featuring System Of A Down's Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan, were treading the boards in the UK in support of their self titled debut album and brought along with them, for the duration, Eighties B-Line Disaster who, over the course of their forty minute set, showed they were capable of delivering some decent pyschobilly rock. In fact had they stopped after twenty minutes then everything would have been perfect. At that point the band were on top of their game resulting in a decent rapport between band and crowd and of course  the ubiquitous crowd surfing antics, Unfortunately that was to prove the high water mark of proceedings as the further the set progressed the more the majority of the songs all started to sound the same.  Perhaps twenty minutes was enough, forty was definitely too long.

Initially Scars On Broadway had been slated to play in the larger room at the Birmingham Academy complex, however the decision was made to downgrade into the Academy 2 to provide the band with a sold out affair and that left two options for those who made the journey into town to see the band: enter into the hub of the main room that smelled of sweat and beer with hardly room to breathe, or stand on the draughty balcony where there was a distinct lack of atmosphere and the less passionate members of the audience had a tendency to natter. 

Opting for the former when Scars On Broadway kicked off with ‘Serious’ and ‘Exploding/Reloading’ the floor of the venue felt like it was bowing under the enthusiastic jumping of the crowd. The band played at a furious pace delivering song after song and foregoing any attempt at direct communication and, setting such a pace, it wasn't long before they had ploughed through the vast majority of their self titled debut platter.  ‘World Long Gone’ proved a highlight as did the cover of David Bowie/Iggy Pop’s ‘China Girl’ and with songs like ‘They Say’ in their arsenal to round things off Scars On Broadway, much like Serj Tankian before them, eschewed the opportunity to delve into the SOAD catalogue to pad out the show. Unfortunately, again rather like their erstwhile frontman's appearance at the same venue back in August, Scars On Broadway seemed to lack that killer edge, a fact that wasn't helped by the appalling sound that plagued much of the set.  Maybe the magic only happens when they all get together, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.