Deftones - Manchester Academy, Manchester, 11/7/2006

  by Aaron Brown

published: 21 / 7 / 2006

intro

It has been three years since Sacramento hard rockers the Deftones last toured Britain. Aaron Brown finds them, despite their long absence, still a sorely needed force to be reckoned with at the Manchester Academy

We have not seen or heard from Sacramento’s finest in quite a while. A lot has changed in three years. While erstwhile members Chino Moreno and Stephen Carpenter have focused on side-project Team Sleep, nu-metal has been consigned to the dustbin along with red caps, boiler suits and bad lyrics about questionable parental relations…. Thank Christ. Despite Manchester being a hot and sticky mess at the minute, the packed out Manchester Academy do not seem to mind. Chino and crew, from the start have the crowd lapping it up with 'Hexagram'. I soon realise how special this band are. The band play a mixture of old favourites from the 'Around the Fur' and 'Adrenaline' albums, making them sound as fresh as when they were written over a decade ago. Show stoppers 'Minerva' and 'Passenger' delight as the sweaty dehydrated crowd sing along. Chino, a few pounds lighter and a few years older, still knows how to cut it as an energetic front-man. There is little interaction with the audience besides Chi Cheng remarking that he feels like he is at an Incubus concert due to the number of young girls in the audience. The band’s Goth influence really shows through in Elite sounding like a more contemporary Depeche Mode. Perhaps the best track of the night, 'Change in the House of Flies', really shows that this band still has a lot to offer and that music industry types pigeonholing them as Fred Durst wannabes was just ignorance. The band play not one but three encores finishing with classic shout-a-long 'Bored'. It will be interesting to see what Deftones number five will sound like. One thing is certain. Hard rock really needs a band like this right now, to save us from the Lost Prophets and Emo. Save us Chino, you are our only hope.

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