Deftones: Live in Melbourne
I went and checked out the Deftones recently. They were in Melbourne for the Big Day Out and decided to give us a side show while they were here.
My thoughts, just quickly, in dot point format:
- Loved the setlist (available here). It was quite innovative – they played a few songs off each of their albums in (almost) chronological order. It was a guided tour through their entire catalogue, and made for a pleasant change from the standard ‘start with the biggest recent hit, finish with the old crowd pleaser’ formula that most bands stick to.
- Liked the stage set up too. There was a set of steps facing the crowd that gave vocalist Chino Moreno something to climb up and jump around and pose on as he was singing.
- The Palace Theatre, or Metro as most people still call it, is a pretty impressive venue, and it would be very cool to play there. The multiple levels bearing down on the stage remind me of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck video.
The happy punters (except for the one aggro bloke)
- I thought the sound could have used a bit more oomph. They needed some bigger stacks of Marshalls or something (whoops, I mean Oranges – whatever). I suppose it’s difficult when you’re touring the world and playing all different sizes of venues to take a rig that suits every venue, and the Metro is a particularly high-ceilinged venue that makes the acoustics a challenge.
- The crowd got into it and were generally in good spirits, although there were a couple of aggro dudes near me blocking people walking up and down the stairs that could have used a couple of cans of chill the fuck out. I wish people would stop filming the whole thing on their frikking iPhones too – they get in the way. Dude, you’re at the concert, enjoy it – the grainy, muffled recording on your phone isn’t going to be worth the effort of standing there like a knob when you could be enjoying the gig. Buy a live DVD or find some decent quality live footage on Youtube if you want to relive it.
- My favourite songs for the night were Kimdracula, Minerva and Sextape – one each off their last three albums. All the new songs sounded great live.
- Chino chugged a beer when the crowd yelled ‘skull, skull skull!’ – gotta love peer group pressure.
- Scotch and coke tastes even better on a Monday night for some reason – give it a try!
| Category | Rating |
| Sound: | 7 |
| Set List: | 9 |
| Crowd: | 8 |
| Overall: | 8 |
– Hazizi
Three Paper Reviews 