Now as I will probably incur some shit for anything I put into this review I will caveat it with the fact that the original person who was supposed to review this show couldn't due to some unexpected issues, so yours truly stepped into the fray so as not to let this very rare outing of Deftones (8) in Cardiff go unrecorded by us. I will say that I am not a necessarily as au fait and obsessed with the band as many who were at the gig.
Deftones have a fanatical following, rightly so, with many of their songs being the soundtrack to people of my age (and maybe a decade before's) adolescence, while there's a whole new generation who have the discovered the bands, can I say erotic (?), style of hallucinogenic music and they were the ones who stampeded to the front, well sort of quickly shuffled as security were enforcing swimming pool rules of no running though I'm sure later there was plenty of heavy petting going on.
Because of my enjoyment of the band but not cult like following it seemed to me that while everything Deftones do live is incredibly slick, from Chino's aloof stage persona that only cracks before My Own Summer (Shove It), to the background videos, lighting and stage presence, musically they felt a little thin. Whether this is the curse of Cardiff's biggest indoor venue I don't know but there did only seem to be some heavy muscle when Chino brought out a second guitar.
Now Deftones play with dynamics, they were one of the first bands to have that loud/soft duality but both seem a little subdued tonight in Wales capital, as Chinos vocals are right up in the mix, though still indecipherable on the lesser heard tracks, at least to the casual listener. The setlist can't be argued with either with seven from the new one, Private Music spread through the night as tracks from Diamond Eyes, Around The Fur, Koi No Yokan, Saturday Night Wrist, White Pony, Adrenaline and Ohms all got featured.
Bringing together new, old and classic tracks each getting a huge reaction but often from different parts of the crowd. For fans though this was pure heaven, the amount of noise people made after this show and at all these tour dates is wild. Second coming stuff of you will! So from I guess an 'outsiders' position, Deftones are a band who perform really well on stage, but sound wise they were a little muddy. I'm sure superfans will give it an 11/10 and think I'm dead wrong but I think I'm being fair to them and to the band with my score.
To get people in the mood for the headliner, they brought with them two very eclectic support acts. Opening up it's Albany, New York post-hardcore mob Drug Church (7) who stormed the stage with their energetic from of punk rock. Stalking the stage and encouraging as many pits and crowd surfers as they can, I think a lot of the Tik Tok kids down the front were taken by surprise by the immediate calls for movement and surfing but soon they adapted to body after body being carried their way to front after constant shout outs not to drop folks.
Drug Church got the energy fizzing, frenetic performance that got the riffs coming from early, warming up the soggy fans in attendance. Them it was something different, Miami rap artist Denzel Curry (7) who came out to spit bars straight from Florida. An impressive, light and video show, fusing with boundless energy as Curry interacted with his DJ, dropping some brilliantly mixed tracks that even featured interpolation of disco classics. Though music nerds would notice this, most of the crowd were locked into the vibes and the big grooves. Pretty much an ideal opener, taking the role of an MC to lead into Deftones, as the final cover of Bulls On Parade crosses those genre boundaries to set the stage for the headliners.
Overall this was show for the fans, Deftones doing what they've been doing for 35+ years in front of those who have been there since the beginning and the new crowd brought from their social media popularity. While I may never been converted to the cult of Chino and co, as a live band they should definitely be on your watch list.
No comments:
Post a Comment