Another synonymously hot and humid Big Day Out sideshow, on a Monday night (thank god I don’t have a job at the moment) at the Metro, so off I went to The Deftones.
Having had discussions with my peers in recent weeks suggesting that the band is highly underrated and rarely discussed enough, fifteen years on, six full-length albums (and in my opinion – not a bad one dropped) later and their latest album ‘Diamond Eyes’ (2010) has old and new fans alike proclaiming it’s their best yet. That can’t be said for many bands these days – usually you get one or two great albums out and by their 3rd or 4th you are left wondering why you are still going out and buying their records – spin after spin – trying to find something in their new stuff to hold onto – something to justify why you still like them. I have never felt that way with this band – every time they drop a new record – I like it straight off the bat and it quickly becomes a new obsession for months to come.
Admittedly, I have been listening to these guys since I was 12 (AHHH the days of smoking bongs and “nu-metal”) and have never seen them live. I had heard in the past that previous tours throughout Australia had been disappointing for one reason or another but I felt I was in for a great gig. The Melbourne crowd is well known for being a little less excitable then most Australian cities but tonight many people were expecting something HUGE and as the Deftones took the stage with ‘Birthmark’ from their 1995 debut everyone’s excitement was justified.
The Deftones reeled off another 10 hits from their first three records – ‘Be Quiet and Drive’, ‘My Own Summer’, ‘Around The Fur’, ‘Digital Bath’, ‘Knife Party’, ‘Hexagram’, ‘Bloody Cape’ – all in chronological order (very smart as to avoid any arsehole fans yelling at them to play the old hits), before breezing into seven songs from the new record.
The way Chino Moreno flailed around on-stage brought on a set of rapid flashbacks to high school days where every kid wanted to be him – signature plaid shirt and the special way he wraps his mic cord around his wrist. Chino seems to be in better form than ever – blazing through their 22 track set without missing a line and with some crafty work from their mixer – every piercing scream lingered and echoed.
After a brief hiatus, (Stef and Serg remained on powering the feedback from ‘Passenger’) the full band returned for a sort of encore) – ‘Root’ and ‘7 words’. The band’s extensive set left little time for chit-chat but any true Deftones fans were not disappointed.
Leaving the Metro, AKA The Palace these days and hitting the humid Melbourne city streets – I walked with a gigantic smile on my face and went home to put their albums on in succession.
– Ava Voogt
