I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 4, 2025] Deftones

I liked Deftones pretty much from when they first came out (the riff for My Own Summer is so good), although like everyone else, it was White pony that really blew me away.

I was lucky enough to see them in 2016 after they released Gore (an album that I love even though many fans do not).  They played the Sands Bethlehem, not a great venue, but the band sounded great and the band was really interactive with the audience.

I knew I wanted to see them again but the pandemic had other ideas, rescheduling their shows a few times.  When the rescheduled show finally happened in 2022, I wound up going with my daughter to see Beach Bunny instead.  And my son (a Deftones fan) went in my place.  Interestingly, since then my daughter has become a big Deftones fan and wow I’m sure she wished we had gone to Deftones instead of Beach Bunny.

Indeed, when this show was announced, I grabbed four tickets for me, my son, and my daughter.  But then my daughter had a commitment she couldn’t get out of (oh no), so my son’s friend came along–he’s a big fan as well–and all was good.  Actually it wasn’t all good because my car died on the way down.  Luckily it died on the way to his school and not while we were on 95.  Okay it didn’t die exactly, but it gave me a very alarming warning beep that made me quite certain I would not be driving it anywhere except home.

So he drove us in his convertible.  And he handled the nonsense of rte 95, the bottleneck at the Wells Fargo Center and the fact that there was a baseball game at the same time next door very well.  The baseball traffic was the real killer and the reason we missed fleshwater completely.  While we were in line for the exit, a car swerved in front of us and it was one of my coworkers!  How weird.  They were going to the stupid baseball game.

But we had decent seats (straight back but not close) and after Mars Volta we waited with mounting excitement.  It was here that I realized how young (and female) much of the audience was (like my daughter).  I believe that TikTok has introduced them to a lot of new people (good for Deftones, but it means they pay arenas instead of large clubs now).

The lights went down and thier gigantic video screen behind them lit up.  The screen jumped between shots of the band playing and other random projected videos.

The show started with what I guess is their (now) biggest hit.  I believe that Be Quiet is the song that got all the younguns into them.  And it sounded great, even in the cavernous Wells Fargo.  And I was really impressed with how energetic and bouncy Chino Moreno (who is in his 50s now) was.

They surprised me by jumping right to My Own Summer–maybe Chino needs to get the screams from that over with early to save hos voice for the rest of the show.  So two songs in a row from their 1997 album (which came out long before many of their fans were born).

They played two songs from Koi No Yokan and I think this was the first time when the cavernous arena lost some of the sounds.  Because this album has subtleties in it and the arena gives everything a wall of noise feel, which is kind of a bummer (I hope my son appreciates even more getting to see them at the Met).  Although a song like Swerve City with its propulsive bass loses nothing in a big place like this.

So far  they hadn’t played anything new (to me).  Of course it had been almost ten years so I can’t say I remember the show all that well.  But then they played two songs from White Pony and Feiticeira was new to me.  And, as with Mars Volta, it was the quieter parts of the songs that fared better.  Digital Bath sounded amazing (and it was fun to actually hear the crowd sing along).

They only played one song from Gore, but it was a good one Prayers/Triangles.  And it was followed by three more songs from Diamond Eyes.  The pummeling You’ve Seen the Butcher and one of my favorites, Rocket Skates.  I love the guns, razors, knives, screamed part.  And on the video I took you can hear the whole arena shouting along. You can see people crowd surfing which I didn’t really expect at an arena show.

I loved hearing the quiet and spooky Sextape which they followed with Around the Fur, a song I don’t listen to much (I don’t go too far back in the catalog most of the time).  But they stayed on that album for Headup–two great songs for the old school fans to really slam dance to.

Then it was tie for a bit of a breather with the moodier Rosemary followed by one of my favorite songs of theirs Hole in the Earth.  The swirling quiet section sounded great and the juxtaposition to  the heavy riffage was fantastic.

They played one more song from White Pony, Change, which is one of my faves as well and the quiet intro and whispered vocals worked surprisingly well in this giant place.  The video which was of a red sky with a slow sunrise was really perfect.

I was a little surprised that they didn’t play much from their most recent album (2020’s Ohms, which I guess would have been the tour that my son saw), but Genesis was a strong choice and a great set ender.

After a brief encore break, the band came back out for three more songs.  Minerva was a cool choice with a video of a giant-sized ballerina dancing over Chino’s head.  And then it was back to their debut for a killer rendition of Bored.  This song was especially cool because the lighting really lit up the stage–most of the time it was pretty dark–so you could actually see the band!  I don’t understand how Chino’s voice can withstand so much growling and shrieking–his range is incredible.  And even by the last two songs he was still jumping up and off of risers like a 20 year old.

They ended with a song from Adrenaline that I had forgotten about until the screaming chorus (ringing guitars and the chant

Suck, suck, suck, suck
Suck, suck, suck, suck
Suck, suck, suck, suck

I hadn’t really given much thought to the song, but online tells me

The song title refers to the police statement, “You have the right to remain silent.”  In an interview, frontman Chino Moreno goes into detail:  I wrote it back when I was 16 years old. It’s probably one of the angriest songs I’ve ever written. It was about being oppressed by people around me, the authorities, I felt like the whole world was against me. It was like I was lashing out at those people.”

And that was a kickass way to end the show.  The three of us enjoyed it immensely and I can only hope for my daughter’s sake that they come back again soon.  And [UPDATE] since they released a new album in August, chances are good they’ll be back in 2026.

	2025 Wells Fargo Center	2016 Sands Bethlehem
	Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) Ω	Kimdracula §
	My Own Summer (Shove It) Ω	Swerve City ¥
	Diamond Eyes ♦	Acid Hologram ©
	Tempest ¥	Diamond Eyes ♦
	Swerve City ¥	Beauty School ♦
	Feiticeira ϖ	Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) Ω
	Digital Bath ϖ	MX Ω
	Prayers/Triangles ©	Gore ©
	You’ve Seen the Butcher ♦	(L)MIRL ©
	Rocket Skates ♦	Digital Bath ϖ
	Sextape ♦	Rocket Skates ♦
	Around the Fur Ω	Tempest ¥
	Headup Ω	Prince ♦
	Rosemary ¥	Minerva ‰
	Hole in the Earth §	Knife Party ϖ
	Change (in the House of Flies) ϖ	Change (in the House of Flies) ϖ
	Genesis Ø	What Happened to You ¥
	encore	Passenger ϖ
	Minerva ‰	encore
	Bored ∇	My Own Summer (Shove It) Ω
	7 Words ∇	Rickets Ω
		Headup Ω
		encore
		Bored ∇

 

¶ Private Music (2025)
Ø Ohms (2020)
© Gore (2016)
¥ Koi No Yokan (2012)
♦ Diamond Eyes (2010)
§ Saturday Night Wrist (2006)
‰ Deftones (2003)
ϖ White Pony (2000)
Ω Around the Fur (1997)
∇ Adrenaline (1995)