Even though he’s flying solo on Elect the Dead and thus freed from the

bonds of System of a Down’s chief pseudo-poet, Daron Malakian, Serj

Tankian still unfortunately comments on issues with a capital “I,” a

pedestrian habit that grates on the intellect. He tackles the refuse

of post-industrial society with the all the subtlety of an 18-year-old

budding lefty who just discovered Noam Chomsky. And yet he sings with

a passion tinged with enough melancholic humility to almost drown out

his freshman-year observations. Maybe ol’ Serj just has too much to

say and doesn’t want to leave anything out. Maybe there’s just too

much going on for him to channel it into focused narratives. Or maybe

he should just shut up and sing. With Fair to Midland. Showbox SoDo

1700 1st Ave. S. 652-2297. 7:30 p.m. $25. KEVIN CAPP

Listen to a sample of Serj Tankian’s “Sky Is Over.”

var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.seattleweekly.com/players/vvmMiniPlayer.swf?audioFile=http://media.newtimes.com/id/1977167/&autoPlay=no”, “theSWF”, “91”, “32”, “8”, “#FFFFFF” ); so.write( “player” );

Tue., March 11, 7 p.m., 2008