8/10
18th February 2013
Tuesday night saw alt-rock pioneers Deftones deliver an emphatic set to the delight of a sold-out Manchester crowd. The fans meanwhile displayed the best following of a band I have witnessed in a long time, losing the plot for their most famous numbers whilst embracing songs in awe from their most recent opus.
Main support came from post-Hardcore rockers, Letlive. At the ripe age of 23, I personally find a group of inked-up blokes in tank-tops, slamming out riffs with more angst than Black Veil Brides, rather tiresome. However, they exhibited plenty of energy and the fact that they were musically vastly different to Deftones is a testament to Deftones’s endeavour for originality and open-mindedness.
Now onto the spectacle. With Koi No Yokan recently released, one would expect Chino Moreno and his men to place a heavy emphasis on these newer tracks. Instead the mixture of songs was balanced in such a way that the set was extremely fulfilling. Ranging from massive hits like ‘My Own Summer’ and ‘Be Quiet and Drive’, to contemporary classics such as opener ‘Diamond Eyes’ and the driving force of ‘CMND/CTRL’, newer songs were carefully placed to complete a wholesome 20-song set.
The opening songs buoyed an already enthused crowd, whom continuously bounced through the bludgeoning riffs of Carpenter’s 8-string. Atmospheric tracks, including White Pony’s ‘Passenger’, then deepened and intensified the vibe. Transcending this stage of the night, Deftones instilled more energy into the crowd with the thunderous ‘Swerve City’ and ‘Dai the Flu’ before finishing in the fiercest possible way.
The crowd had plenty of gas left in the tank for the encore… and they were going to need every last drop. ‘Nosebleed’, ‘Engine No. 9’ and ‘7 words’ – heavy and aggressive songs from their first album, Adrenaline – completed a hugely successful night by sending the crowd wild in an utterly epic climax.
