[ATTENDED: August 2, 2016] Deftones
I tend to not go to metal shows all that often, but there have been a few bands that I’ve really wanted to see. Mastodon was one and Deftones was the other. I’ve loved just about everything Deftones have done since the super heavy “My Own Summer” and then the major turn they took into an almost shoegaze vibe on their later albums. They are never afraid to experiment and their albums are always compelling. Much of that is due to singer Chino Moreno’s voice. He can whisper and sing beautifully and he can scream like nobody I’ve ever heard. And all of that was on display last night.
Top it off with Chino being an incredibly charming and gracious frontman (who seemed to be more than enjoying himself) and you have an outstanding show.
The band sounded great. I was right in front of guitarist Stephen Carpenter and it was amazing to watch the sounds he was making out of his eight string (8!) guitar. I couldn’t really see bassist Sergio Vega all that well, although I was delighted that he was wearing a Smiths shirt and was singing great harmonies.
From the outset Chino was up on the platform at the front of the stage–climbing up and singing to us all and the running around to all parts of the stage. And he is full-body into his singing.
Despite how much I like the band I don’t really have a sense of which songs are on which albums. So I didn’t know what a wonderfully varied set they played–at least one song from each of their albums.
Perhaps the most underrated guy on stage was their keyboardist /turntable/sampler Frank Delgado. I’m not entirely sure what he was doing up there behind his wall of gear, but I know that he was making all kinds of sounds that couldn’t be attributed to anyone else. He was also in shadow nearly the whole night (and from my angle, Carpenter was in front of him almost the whole time). So I didn’t really get to watch him anyhow. But there were interesting samples and what I have to assume was him manipulating sounds live and all manner of coolness going on.
Carpenter had about 4 different guitars (in various colors) and most of the time he kept his head down, chugging away for much of the show.
I was surprised to see that for many of the songs Chino played the main guitar riff while Carpenter played the noisy sections. He did some lead shredding as well although there’s not a ton of that in Deftones music.
And I never even saw the drummer Abe Cunningham (his rig was on the far side of the stage in the back.) But his presence was certainly felt as he made a great noise back there.
But all eyes were on Chino (particularly the rather annoying girl with dreadlocks who kept forcing her way in front of me and the people near me and then going back to her friends. She also did lot of very vigorous dancing which got me hit tin the face on several occasions with her hair). And Chino did not disappoint.
In addition to being an incredibly nice and polite speaker when he did speak. He said that he’d never been to Bethlehem before and the “place was fucking dope.” He also sincerely thanked us very much for coming out. But while he was singing he was a wildman. He came down off the stage and sang to and with the audience. He went to both sides of the audience and climbed up on something so he was very high up and sang/screamed to everyone. At one point he even fell face first into the waiting arms of everyone as he finished the final screams of a song (while other people were surfing up towards him).
He came over in front of us three times. As soon as he did, the crowd surged forward and he shook hands and let people touch his (sweaty) hair and held the mic out for people and never lost his momentum. He was just a few feet from me and it was pretty amazing being a part of that.
The crowd was really into it (watching two guys who were about to come to blows before the show (one guy pushed his way up font) hugging it out when they played “MX” was pretty funny). But there was no slam dancing. I was really surprised considering how heavy the band is.
It wasn’t until the first encore, which they started with “My Own Summer (Shove It)” that the dancing began in earnest. And as the subtitle says there as lot of shoving Chino still had a ton of energy–jumping high off the monitors and racing around the stage to be near everyone before returning to the center. The encore was three songs from Around the Fur, their first big hit album. And when they finished “Headup,” Chino said thanks, dropped the mic and walked off.
Lots of people left but that was a foolish thing because they had one more song left–a great version of their first hit “Bored.”
The set was outstanding and all of the subtleties that Deftones are known for were on display. I was totally blown away.
As the band walked, Cunningham (whom I had yet to see) came over and threw drumsticks to us–one hit my hand, but the girl next to me grabbed it. Then Carpenter threw out a handful of picks which fell just short of me. I hung around a little longer and watched a roadie sail a drum head into the crowd, which was a first for me.
I knew that exiting the venue would be a nightmare (the Sands is a great location, but their parking lot is a huge bottleneck), I hung around by the stage. Two people around me grabbed setlists. I took a picture of one, so that neat–wonder what those numbers mean.
And then I heard a clicking on the ground as someone threw a drumstick over the head of someone else and it landed just inches from my feet. And here’s my first official piece of gear from a band. Needless to say I’m an even bigger fan of Deftones now.
SETLIST
Kimdracula
Swerve City
Acid Hologram
Diamond Eyes
Beauty School
Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
MX
Gore
(L)MIRL
Digital Bath
Rocket Skates
Tempest
Prince
Minerva
Knife Party
Change (in the House of Flies)
What Happened to You
Passenger
encore
My Own Summer (Shove It)
Rickets
Headup
encore
Bored
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