Dissecting the Disappearance of Scars on Broadway

New look, new name, same fun bullshit opinions. Let's do this.

As part of the announcement by Scars on Broadway that they were killing their tour yesterday, frontman Daron Malakian included a statement noting the decision to cancel the tour hinged around feelings that "his heart wasn't into touring at this time." MetalSucks gave the group the backhanded compliment of calling out their brutal honesty, but I'd prefer to take them to task for selling their fans (all five of them, apparently, since the album only sold 56,000 copies) down the river. Don't they know that the first rule of making music for others is following up on your promises, right down to doing the tour you don't want to do because not enough people bought your record or the tickets to your shows?

Maybe I've been reading too much Lefsetz Letter recently, but it seems so obvious that any band looking to make a living playing music needs to establish a solid fan base and cater to it as much as possible. I realize that part of the problem is that Malakian may have lost the desire to make a living playing music, but if he ever hopes to make a comeback heading up a project he's got to remember that trading in on a previous success will only get so far: if he wants to tap into the enormous power of word-of-mouth marketing, he's got to give that potential word-of-mouth group something to believe in. Instead, he's got blogs making fun of him for sulking over ticket sales and now he may never be seen as more than a money-grubber hoping to cash in on the eventual System of a Down reunion.