Last December, System Of A Down announced three North American stadium headline shows in August and September, 2025, not long after finishing their highly anticipated South American stadium tour. Alongside SOAD on these dates were up and coming artists Wisp and Polyphia, along with a unique co-headliner at each stop. The East Rutherford, NJ show at MetLife Stadium included special guest Korn, the Chicago, IL show at Soldier Field featured Avenged Sevenfold, and Rogers Stadium in Toronto, ON welcomed Deftones. As expected, all three shows flooded Ticketmaster with queues 100,000+ deep once ticket sales went live. Within minutes, the stadiums were sold-out and here I was left without a single ticket. Thankfully, a second date was added to each stadium to accomodate the wild demand. I was able to get a pair of tickets to each second-date added before these shows sold out almost as fast as the first set of dates.The road trips across the East Coast were something I looked forward to for the next eight months. After two incredible trips to East Rutherford and Chicago, it was time to put the final 500 miles on the 2500 mile journey and hit the road to Toronto.

My ticket for the Toronto show with the Deftones was for night two, which was held on Friday September 5th. To be clear, when I bought the tickets for the show back in December I hought this show was at the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto, home of the Blue Jays. It wasn’t long until I realized that wasn’t where the show would be, and it would be at the newly built and unopened, Rogers Stadium. Announced by Live Nation in September of 2024 Rogers Stadium was built within just nine months. The location of the stadium is at Downsview Airport, where the city hosted the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto back in 2003. That event brought in an estimated 450,000-500,000 people, my 12 year old self included, to see The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Rush and more. After 22 years, I was back at the airfield to see System Of A Down and Deftones with 50,000 other people. 

When I arrived at Rogers Stadium around 4pm, just a half hour before inital doors, the lines to get into the venue and for the outside merch tent were massive. It wasn’t long after arrival when the stadium announced they were holding door until 5pm due to high winds. Here I was, at the final show of the SOAD tour, and mother nature wanted to interfere. Outdoor venues can be tricky, especially ones in the middle of an airfield. The sky was filled with clouds and some scattered rain drops, but that wouldn’t disrupt the show. What could potentially threaten the show was the extreme wind. While awaiting to go into the venue’s fan plaza area, wind was blowing dirt and debris everywhere, and the privacy tarps on the fences were violently whipping back and forth. Due to this, the artists and venue decided to move Wisp and Polyphia to a side stage they have on site inside the fan plaza area. This immediately gave me festival vibes, running around from stage to stage to catch every band. While the two openers drew a decent crowd to the side stage, other fans were still queued in lines for merch, food and to get into the main stadium. Deftones were scheduled to go on at 7:20pm and just twenty minutes ahead of set time, the stadium area was still closed off. The venue rightfully expressed production and safety concerns due to the high winds. Fans were definitely losing patience, and I myself wondered if the show was at risk for being canceled. With my luck, I thought the show would be canceled and I’d never get to check SOAD off my bucket list of bands to photograph. Rogers Stadium finally opened the gates and let fans in shortly after 7:00pm where it was just minutes until the scheduled start time for Deftones. When we were brought to the front of the stage to photograph, it was obvious the band wasn’t ready. The stage was still getting set up by the crew while the lighting rigs and screens swayed back and forth from the wind. There was so much uncertainty at this point but the venue finally gave an update that the new start time would be 8:00pm. By 8:15pm the Deftones took the stage and wasted no time getting through an 18 song setlist. Touring behind their latest release, Private Music, Deftones still elected to have a well balanced setlist mixing hits songs from nine different albums. Even though the night grew colder and the wind was still whipping, the crowd wasn’t effected. Everyone was singing along, having a great time, and enjoying the show.  It was obvious fans showed up for the Deftones just as much as System Of A Down, something I witnessed in Chicago and East Rutherford. Korn, Avenged Sevenfold and Deftones all had their own diehard fan bases travel to these shows and while supporting their own favorite bands, everyone stuck around and went crazy for SOAD. I’ve personally seen crowds leave after an opener and crowds show up after an opener was over, so to see how perfectly each duo fit together was awesome. 

By the time System Of A Down went on stage it was 10:15pm. The one thing everyone was talking about after the initial delays was the venue’s 11:00pm curfew. The question of whether or not System would have to cut their setlist short or play past the cutoff was going through everyone’s mind. Cutting the setlist short was not an option for SOAD. The band came to Toronto to give 50,000 people the show of their lives and made it happen. Just like night one, System Of A Down delivered its fans a 25 song setlist. While each city got two nights, System elected to keep the shows similar with slight variations, enough difference to make each night unique, especially for those attending both nights in each city. Night two in Toronto kicked off with “X”, “Suite-Pee” and “Prison Song.” Fans who came to Toronto from all over the world matched the energy System brought and showed they are truly one of the craziest and loyal fan bases out there. Flags and signs lined the barricade rail representing vairous countries of those attending, and fans even passed out custom made rubber bracelets to those around them. A sense of community really showed. The way the music of SOAD brings people together is something you need to see for yourself at a show. The atmosphere every night of this tour has been incredible. New and longtime fans across all ages thoughout the stadium were moshing, headbanging, dancing, and singing in unison all night long, displaying the pure passion for the band’s music, both its energy and powerful messages. Mixed within the set that consisted of almost all of the album Toxicity, was a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Snowblind.” The band has been paying tribute to the life of Ozzy Osbourne almost every night of the tour by playing a cover they released in 2002 as part of “The Osborne Family Album.” The group ended their run of six shows with “Toxicity” and “Sugar”,  two tracks that are so iconic, even the most casual fan of heavy metal and rock music will recognize them. 

After playing six sold out shows across three major cities, System Of A Down has finished their 2025 concert calendar strong. Hundreds of thousands of fans got the opportunity to see System for perhaps the first ever time or for the first time in many years. The opportunities to see SOAD don’t come very often, so as someone who took advantage of these incredible nights, don’t skip out on that next chance. Currently there are no scheduled shows so fans will have to be patient. Prior to taking stage in Chicago on night two, the screens on the sides of the stage were showing clips of the Sick New World animated characters. For those unfamiliar, Sick New World was a festival headlined by System Of A Down in 2023 and 2024. Perhaps this was a teaser for a return of Sick New World in 2026, so cross your fingers for a return to the Las Vegas strip.