Serj Tankian and The Nightwatchman — live! | Moiz Khan

Serj Tankian and The Nightwatchman — live!Filed Under: Life

On September 29 at 1:00 pm…I made the best purchase I have made in my lifetime…I bought tickets to the Serj Tankian and The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello) performing at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza in NYC (Wednesday, Oct 17th). My life from that point onwards was spent constantly day dreaming of the day I would finally get to see my two favorite musicians live.

So…fast forward a few weeks…its October 17 and the day is finally here! I made a plan with my sister to pick me up from school about half way into the day…(so we can have time to get home, and do stuff before we leave for NYC). After a little while of driving and taking the train we finally arrived at the Fillmore at around 7:45…the doors had opened around 7:30 but luckily…musicians like to perform really late…so it didn’t get going till 9:00pm. So for about an hour I pushed my way through until I got all the way to the front…(basically 15 feet away from the stage!).

The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello) opened up with his solo work. Songs like One Man Revolution, Let Freedom Ring, The Road I Must Travel, Maximum Firepower, Union Song and a couple other which I can’t think of name. Then he performed some new song called “Lazarus on Down” which in the middle of…a second voice came out of the speakers…it was Serj!!! The roar of the crowd at his appearance was literally deafening. He did a little background type humming and singing for one song and went backstage. Morello then performed a couple other songs like “Guerrilla Radio” and then he did a cover of Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land Is Your Land” and he ended off with a strong fist in the air and huge applaud from the crowd (me included). Morello also had little side speeches between songs, during tuning his guitar and such. He said things like “we must put the war criminal that is in the white house in front of a war crimes board…and a jury packed with a few members of this crowd.”…Awesome way to kick a night off.

After Morello wrapped up, there was about a 20 minute wait, (for audio technicians to get stuff set up). So around 10:00pm…the FCC (Flying Cunts of Chaos) appeared (the FCC is the live band that tours with Serj… ) Finally Serj Tankian in full costume showed up on the stage for his own performance. The crowd went nuts and you could barely hear anything but the crowd for a minute or two…

Serj opened up with The Unthinking Majority to which the crowd started up a mosh-pit of sorts and had a couple folks being passed through on top of the crowd. With my luck…out of nowhere in the middle of “Empty Walls”…someone picked me up and I went flying through the crowd which was amazing. The feeling of floating with a few hundred people going wild is remarkable. Once I got back into place…Serj was still performing at an amazingly high level and it was a great concert from then on. He performed most of the songs off his new album while taking pauses in the middle for thanking the NYC crowd which absolutely loved the guy. The songs were really hard but had a nice polished touch to them that only Serj could add with his vocals.

After the show ended, I headed over to the little gift shop area (makeshift that is) and bought 130 bucks worth of memorabilia. A Serj Tankian - Elect the Dead hoody for $55, a Serj Tankian Elect the Dead T-Shirt for $30, a Nightwatchman T-shirt also for $30 and the Nightwatchman CD for $15. All well worth the money!

Overall it was possibly one of the best nights I have ever had…the music is still going through my ears…(possibly because I stood right next to the stage (and thus next to the speakers). Serj Tankian and The Nightwatchman certainly deserve all the credit they get, and then more. Their passion for truth and music is second to none, and the inspiration that it can give to any young radical like myself is incredible.

Look for a couple CD review blogs of the Serj Tankian’s Elect the Dead and Nightwatchman’s One Man Revolution albums soon!

Share and Enjoy: