As an age old fan of the Deftones I absolutely relished the opportunity to review the band at the world renowned Brixton Academy. Arriving early out of nothing short an uber of sense of keenness, we nestled in to a good position to watch the support act – Coheed and Cambria. The lead singers humongous hair paid a silent tribute to the late Jimmy Hendrix while the bands thrash metal styling made the perfect deafening prequel to the Deftones onslaught that we were about to endure.
The time arrived for the show and we could all feel the excitement ripping across the crowd like a tsunami. The Deftones launched on to the stage with the force of a herd of enraged wildebeest in an earthquake. You would think the band was in flames judging by the ferocity in which they exploded on to the stage like at terrorist.
My first experience of Deftones, much like with many a band of the same ilk, was at the Reading Festival way back in the year 2000. Sandwiched nicely between the highly contrasting Elastica and Super Furry Animals, I instantly knew that this certainly wouldn’t be the last time I would see this triumphant band live in concert. So here I found myself at the Brixton Academy squeezed in to the photopit with the security guards and other photographers just over 10 years and 5 albums later.
Chino, dressed in his trade mark checked shirt led the band in to their first track ‘Rocket Skates’ from their latest album ‘Diamond Eyes’.
Next the band treated us to a selection of their classic tracks from critically acclaimed album ‘Around the Fur’, namely the song of the same title followed by my personal favourites ‘My Own Summer’ and ‘Be Quite and Drive’ closely followed by ‘Lotion’. Despite the passing of 14-years since first recording these songs the Deftones hammered them out with the same quality of sound as on the original album. It really is quite amazing that Chino (or as he was known in the 80’s ‘Camillo Wong Moreno’) can continue to scream these tracks with same gumption as always and then proceed to play some of their more subdued tracks from their later albums. But before it came to that the band first thrashed out a best-of selection of tracks in the form of ‘Feiticeira’, ‘Digital Bath’, ‘Knife Party’ and ‘Elite’ from their 2000 album the ‘White Pony’.
Here followed a hearty selection of tracks from the Deftones latest release. Whilst still generally in the same style as the Deftones older works, the singing and guitar work was noticeably more chilled out and restrained which was the only indication the band gave on this fateful evening that they had aged at all over the last decade.
The band soon shifted back to their older work and hit us with the mind-numbing ‘Minerva’ (their only foray in to their 2003 self-titled album and then ‘Change (In the House of Flies)’.
The band briefly disappeared but as the perfect Deftones gig wasn’t quite complete they returned to stage to send us home with ‘Birthmark’, ‘Engine Number.9’ and the perfect show stopper ‘7 Words’ three of the most brutal tracks back from ‘Adrenaline’.
These miscreants certainly know how to bring the Metal scene screaming back to Brixton Academy.
London, England