REVIEW: Deftones at the Royal Oak Music Theatre

Wednesday night was a bitchin’, badass show full of booze and the occasional boobies.

The show began with openers Scars on Broadway, an Armenian-American group led by System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian. Despite the fast-paced songs and the admirable political message of the lyrics, due to the repetition of the music I found myself wondering: “have they been playing the same song this whole time?” while constantly checking the time in anticipation of the Deftones.

The wait was indeed well worth it.

Deftones opened up with Diamond Eyes and Rocket Skates, two high-energy songs off of their last album, and they kept up the same energy for the entirety of the show. They played all the mandatory fan favorites as well as their two new singles, Tempest and Leathers, to a wild set of fans full of boob-flashers and crowd surfers, and even Chino crowd surfed at one point in the show, with security desperately grabbing him to insure that he didn’t get lost in the sea of over-zealous hands. That’s exactly what I like to see from a front-man. Rock with us, not to us.

Yours truly was up in the front, clutching the rail for dear life, and getting blasted by the wall of speakers in front of his face. Double fisting a couple long-islands helped with all that, though.

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If you’re not familiar with the Deftones, I strongly encourage you to go get started with their White Pony album. It’s my personal favorite and it’s one of their most highly acclaimed albums. Also, keep an eye out for Koi No Yokan, with a scheduled release of November 13th, and keep an eye out for the Deftones to be coming around again soon in support of the album. My best guess is that we’ll see them around here sometime in the spring after their European tour. Fingers crossed, mother fuckers.

Til next time,

-Jordan

PREVIEW: Deftones at the Royal Oak Music Theatre

The Deftones are back in town on the 24th in support of their upcoming album, Koi No Yokan, to be released November 13th.

Roughly translated, “koi no yokan” is essentially the Japanese equivalent of the phrase “love at first sight” – not surprising when we look at Chino Moreno’s past lyrics, which often dwell on love and relationships, though not always in a positive sense like Koi No Yokan seems to promise.

It remains to be seen whether or not we will be served with an album mostly consisting of gooey, lovey-dovey songs, but if the two recently released singles “Leathers” and “Tempest” are any indication, we can expect a heavy, steaming pile of good ol’ Deftones rock.

I’m really digging “Tempest” – like the name promises, it’s a violent, chaotic windstorm of heavy riffs complemented by lulls of melodic, surreal beauty. Take a listen below:

Deftones – Tempest

Though the new singles are definitely high-quality rock, I can’t say that I think the Deftones are doing anything much different this time round. As usual, there are no guitar solos, and Chino’s lyrics aren’t groundbreaking (sorry Chino), nor do they convey any sort of higher message. One can’t deny, though, that Chino’s lyrics do a great job in effectively conveying emotions, versus simply describing them (I’m looking at you, mainstream rock). Still, the Deftones are a badass band with their own unique brand of music that can’t be found anywhere else.

Come to the Royal Oak Music Theatre this Wednesday the 24th at 7:30 and let’s get our faces fuckin’ melted!

-Jordan