(no subject)
The Deftones are without question the greatest live band on the planet. Sickest pit I've ever been in. My whole body hurts. They get better everytime I see them. Fucking amazing.
Deftones have never sounded better
Thursday, December 07, 2006
BY BRADLEY BAMBARGER
Star-Ledger Staff
NEW YORK -- It's hard to imagine another ultra-heavy rock band whose front man makes affectionate Duran Duran references between songs, as Chino Moreno did while his Deftones took the barest of breathers during a sold-out show Tuesday at Nokia Theater in Times Square.
The Sacramento, Calif., quintet -- which also played the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville last night -- even put a Duran Duran ballad on its pre-show mood tape alongside blunted L.A. hip-hop, dark electro-dance music and the distorted '80s avant-pop of My Bloody Valentine.
Moreno and company were open-eared teenagers in the '80s, picking up the seeds of subtlety one can hear bloom as the band has progressed from the hardcore "nu-metal" of its 1995 debut "Adrenaline" to the sophisticated art-rock of the group's new -- and best -- album, "Saturday Night Wrist."
Gone from the actual set were the covers of the Cure, Cocteau Twins and other alternative '80s bands that have often marked Deftones shows like cultural flags. The group has accumulated plenty of its own textured material, such as the moody, tune-rich new epic "Beware" and Moreno's My Bloody Valentine-style benediction to the female voice, "Minerva."
Although Deftones showed their "feminine" side at Nokia -- and this could be heard in Moreno's sighing, floating melodies even when the band roiled underneath -- the group's Alpha-male aspect won out with sternum-bruising physicality. Moreno, pants drooping way past his hips to no concern, convenes a mosh-pit like few others (with a few young women among the thrashing bodies). And burly guitarist Stephen Carpenter drove "Bloody Cape" to visceral effect, filling the air with his distinctive chord voicings before shifting to pummel mode.
Deftones are most compelling when they mix shadow and catharsis; to that end, more recent songs and fewer old thrashers would've been welcome (although try to tell that to the moshers). One of the best performances was of the ghostly, keening "Digital Bath" (from the 2000 platinum hit, "White Pony"), with the crowd echoing Moreno's love-drugged screams of "I feel like more." Nearly as good was the new "Cherry Waves," which saw hard-hitting drummer Abe Cunningham make like Keith Moon during the Who-style bridge. And in the always beautiful "Minerva," Moreno and Carpenter's guitars groaned in tandem like the churning earth.
The Deftones sound is a sensual one, as lithe, warm and enveloping as it is loud (making a superficially similar band like Audioslave seem rote and soulless). Chi Cheng's bass was as marrow deep as any in dub reggae, while Frank Delgado supplied live samples that hovered and whirled through the mix like untethered spirits. Even Moreno's lyrics are atmospheric, trading literalism for allusion; the emotions are clear, if not always possible to parse.
Moreno and Cunningham have known each other since they were 10 years old and the others nearly as long -- and that's a lot of time to put up with someone's Duran Duran fixation. The group nearly didn't finish this latest album, with relationships suffering from burnout and the usual rock-band clichés. Deftones have never sounded better, though, on record and live. Powered by enough interpersonal angst to make Pink Floyd proud, the new single "Hole in the Earth" exploded with soaring melodic force, moving even Moreno to cluck approval when it was done.
Deftones have never sounded better
Thursday, December 07, 2006
BY BRADLEY BAMBARGER
Star-Ledger Staff
NEW YORK -- It's hard to imagine another ultra-heavy rock band whose front man makes affectionate Duran Duran references between songs, as Chino Moreno did while his Deftones took the barest of breathers during a sold-out show Tuesday at Nokia Theater in Times Square.
The Sacramento, Calif., quintet -- which also played the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville last night -- even put a Duran Duran ballad on its pre-show mood tape alongside blunted L.A. hip-hop, dark electro-dance music and the distorted '80s avant-pop of My Bloody Valentine.
Moreno and company were open-eared teenagers in the '80s, picking up the seeds of subtlety one can hear bloom as the band has progressed from the hardcore "nu-metal" of its 1995 debut "Adrenaline" to the sophisticated art-rock of the group's new -- and best -- album, "Saturday Night Wrist."
Gone from the actual set were the covers of the Cure, Cocteau Twins and other alternative '80s bands that have often marked Deftones shows like cultural flags. The group has accumulated plenty of its own textured material, such as the moody, tune-rich new epic "Beware" and Moreno's My Bloody Valentine-style benediction to the female voice, "Minerva."
Although Deftones showed their "feminine" side at Nokia -- and this could be heard in Moreno's sighing, floating melodies even when the band roiled underneath -- the group's Alpha-male aspect won out with sternum-bruising physicality. Moreno, pants drooping way past his hips to no concern, convenes a mosh-pit like few others (with a few young women among the thrashing bodies). And burly guitarist Stephen Carpenter drove "Bloody Cape" to visceral effect, filling the air with his distinctive chord voicings before shifting to pummel mode.
Deftones are most compelling when they mix shadow and catharsis; to that end, more recent songs and fewer old thrashers would've been welcome (although try to tell that to the moshers). One of the best performances was of the ghostly, keening "Digital Bath" (from the 2000 platinum hit, "White Pony"), with the crowd echoing Moreno's love-drugged screams of "I feel like more." Nearly as good was the new "Cherry Waves," which saw hard-hitting drummer Abe Cunningham make like Keith Moon during the Who-style bridge. And in the always beautiful "Minerva," Moreno and Carpenter's guitars groaned in tandem like the churning earth.
The Deftones sound is a sensual one, as lithe, warm and enveloping as it is loud (making a superficially similar band like Audioslave seem rote and soulless). Chi Cheng's bass was as marrow deep as any in dub reggae, while Frank Delgado supplied live samples that hovered and whirled through the mix like untethered spirits. Even Moreno's lyrics are atmospheric, trading literalism for allusion; the emotions are clear, if not always possible to parse.
Moreno and Cunningham have known each other since they were 10 years old and the others nearly as long -- and that's a lot of time to put up with someone's Duran Duran fixation. The group nearly didn't finish this latest album, with relationships suffering from burnout and the usual rock-band clichés. Deftones have never sounded better, though, on record and live. Powered by enough interpersonal angst to make Pink Floyd proud, the new single "Hole in the Earth" exploded with soaring melodic force, moving even Moreno to cluck approval when it was done.