What a night! The band opened with “Headup” from their sophomore album, Around the Fur, then dove straight into “My Own Summer”. These two tracks made me super happy because they were some of my absolute favorites when I was an angry teenager. LOL. (I guess I still kind of am today.)

Just after those two older songs, they floored the crowd with the opening track from Koi No Yokan – “Swerve City,” followed by two more from White Pony – “Digital Bath,” and “Elite.” The former being a sonic landscape of pure magic and the latter being an absolute bone-crushing performance. (Although I will say the vocoder part on that track got on my nerves a bit since it sounded like it was overpowering the rest of the instruments.)

To my surprise, they only played one track from the new album, Gore, which was “The Phantom Bride,” though it was hauntingly beautiful. (I was really hoping for Prayers/Triangles – but it was still great!)

This was followed by another slower song, “You’ve Seen the Butcher” – which is just a brutally heavy (almost jazzy) tune from the album Diamond Eyes.

Another Diamond Eyes track was next – “Rocket Skates” – which was arguably the most fun and energetic of the entire set in my opinion. The chorus, “GUNS! RAZORS! KNIVES! FUCK WITH ME!” showed on little LED panels behind the band – it was so cool to watch and sing along.

Another slow burner from Koi No Yokan, “Rosemary,” followed. I love this song with its plodding intensity, soaring chorus, and absolutely devastating breakdown at the end.

A crowd favorite from White Pony (probably their most popular album) followed, which was extremely intense with the screams in the middle of the track. Man, HOW DOES CHINO DO THAT?!?! I know it was a woman on the album, but I swear I we witnessed him throw an absolutely blood-curdling shriek right toward the end of the song. WOW.

The band did something sneaky next. The played the first verse of “Rivière” from Saturday Night Wrist before stomping through the heavier part of the end of that song. Again, I was a little disappointed (Why not “Hole in the Earth”? Darn. Next time.) Still, very cool.

Two more Deftones classics followed from White Pony – “Change (In the House of Flies)” and “Back to School (Mini Maggit)”. These aren’t my favorites – I got really tired of “Change” when the band blew up in the early 2000s, but the still jammed hard, so nothing to complain about their performance.

The last two songs were “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” – which is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONGS – and “Minerva,” – from the self-titled album – which is my best friend’s favorite song. Both were absolutely wonderful; the crowd was absolutely insane during the last song.

Then Chino dropped his guitar. The stage went dark and they walked off stage… the air was so thick and you could just feel something very special was about to happen.

Then we saw the bassist sneak back to his spot… it was an encore! The evening closed with “Teething” from the Crow 2 Soundtrack. Folks, let me tell you THEY. KILLED. THIS. SONG. It was amazing. I have long loved this track and it was the absolute perfect way to end the night.

Overall, I wish we’d heard more stuff from the new album, Gore, and my wife REAAAAALLLLY wanted them to play the title track “Diamond Eyes” from their sixth album.

But all-in-all I’m a huge fan and that will never change! I absolutely loved the concert. Chino, Abe, Stef and the rest of the band were all incredible and I can’t wait to see them again!

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