Review: With a sold-out show at United Center, Deftones are bigger than they've ever been

Chicago Tribune

01-04-2025

Fans of the Sacramento, California-founded hard rock act Deftones have long known that the band is one of the best of its kind. Though lumped in with the nu-metal craze of the late 1990s, Deftones were always more musically ambitious than their counterparts, paving their own lane in the alternative scene by combining (or 'mutating,' as frontman Chino Moreno once called it an interview with the British publication NME) elements of new wave, punk, rap and metal into songs that ranged from relentlessly abrasive to lush and melodic.
Some critics have gone so far as to dub them 'the Radiohead of Metal' due to the band's sonically exploratory nature, as well as to Moreno's much meme'd 'screamoan' (scream and moan) singing style.
Having not released new music since 2020's 'Ohms,' they've relied on touring to sustain themselves and their fans – who include everyone from longtime diehards to Gen-Z TikTokers (the annals of Deftones TikTok run deep). A new album has been teased for the past few years and is reportedly nearly finished.
The modern reassessment of late '90s nu metal has played a role in the band's seemingly sudden resurgence, but where the likes of Limp Bizkit or this summer's Lollapalooza headliner Korn's popularity seems rooted in nostalgia and camp (for lack of a better word), interest in Deftones is brimming with serious adoration.
Thirty-five years into their career, they're now bigger than ever.
Currently on the first leg of a North American arena tour, the band ripped through a tight, 75-minute set at the United Center Monday night, following sets by Boston-based Fleshwater and The Mars Volta. (The latter played only new material from an upcoming, unreleased album.)
'Deftones never embraced the 'nu-metal' title, even in that era,' recounted concert-goer Christian Vera, 43, who first saw the band as an opener while in high school. 'Maybe they have in the last five years or so, but in the 'nu-metal era,' they really only did the metal tours if it was a festival. Last year, they did Lolla, they did Coachella, they started Dia de los Deftones (in 2018) for themselves. In Sacramento, they're gods. They've never pigeonholed themselves.'
If you followed the black fishnets, combat boots and cigarette smoke up Madison Street on Monday night, you'd have seen the line of folks waiting to enter the sold-out show. In a parking lot a few blocks west, friends Matthew Cereno, 25, Alex Corral, 26, and Gabriel Delgado, 25, said they were seeing Deftones for the first time.
'I'm open to everything as far as the setlist,' Delgado says of his anticipation. 'I don't know what to expect. I never watched videos of their previous tours, I never YouTubed old videos. … Fifteen years ago, we weren't allowed to go to the shows. So yeah you're listening to the music at 14, 15, but it was always a 21+ show.'
'We've definitely grown up (with Deftones), but my favorite piece of tonight is Mars Volta,' Corral admits. 'They hold a special place for me.'
Inside at around 9 p.m., the crowd's eagerness reached its peak. Very few people moved during Mars Volta, so 15 minutes later, when the lights went down and the opening chords of 'Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)' filled the air and the drums kicked in, it was like a powder keg.
Immediately rushing to the front of the stage, singer Chino Moreno — rocking a pair of original Air Jordan 1's in the house that Jordan built — led the audience in a 20-song sing-along that revisited eight of Deftones' nine studio albums. The band — made up of guitarists Stephen Carpenter and Lance Jackman, bassist Fred Sablan, drummer Abe Cunningham, and Frank Delgado helming keys, turntables and samples — was fiercely dedicated to precision while Moreno's vocal acrobatics stunned, oscillating between raw screams and howls on 'My Own Summer (Shove It),' 'Around the Fur,' and an incendiary, show-ending performance of '7 Words,' to soaring, full-throat crescendos as heard on 'Swerve City,' 'Sextape,' 'Rosemary,' 'Bored,' and the tour debut of fan favorite, 'Cherry Waves.'
'I just realized something,' Moreno said in his longest address to the crowd. 'It's (expletive) Monday. … Usually the most boring day of the week and I'm having a blast, Chicago. We hope you are too.'
The intensity of the reception never let up, aided by ever-changing visual projections— some as esoteric as Moreno's lyrics. When diamonds weren't tumbling down over the band or beautifully tragic femme fatales dancing across screens, the set design gave a bit of 'Cell Block Tango' from the musical Chicago (maybe an unintentional nod to their host city) and though grand, managed to still feel intimate.
'This is my eighth or ninth Deftones show and it's definitely the best one I've seen,' Rudy Nava, 35, said once the band left the stage around 10:45 p.m.
'Deftones stay really true to their sound,' he continued. 'They make new albums just like any other band, but what I've noticed is they'll be like 'Hey, there weren't that many hits on this album. We're not going to shove that album down everyone's throat, we're going to keep playing the hits, we're going to keep playing the songs people want to hear.' And I think that's really kept them going. That's what's really drawing this new generation of TikTokers to them.'
Friends Samantha Enriquez, 21, Nina Estrada, 21, and Evelyn Gonzalez, 23, said they met at work and became friends through bonding over Deftones' music. For them, the concert held additional meaning. At its height, the nu-metal scene — dominated by cisgender white men— was seen as unforgiving, dangerous, and intolerant of women and people of color. Deftones were one of the few bands gracing the stages that weren't all-white. Younger generations have been noting that aspect of their presence in and contributions to hard rock and heavy metal as something to celebrate.
'I didn't feel judged. I could be myself and just jam,' Enriquez said. 'Everybody's singing and jamming, like OK these are my people.
'Seeing a heavy band of dudes of color matters,' she added. 'They're into the culture. They understand the troubles we go through, they relate to it. Especially for people of color to get into rock, it's really hard. There are still barriers to entry. So to see that diversify, I feel appreciated and looked at and I feel welcome.'
Jessi Roti is a freelance writer.
Setlist at the United Center on March 31:
'Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)'
'My Own Summer (Shove It)'
'Diamond Eyes'
'Tempest'
'Swerve City'
'Feiticeira'
'Digital Bath'
'Prayers/Triangles'
'You've Seen the Butcher'
'Rocket Skates'
'Sextape'
'Around the Fur'
'Headup'
'Rosemary'
'Hole in the Earth'
'Change (In the House of Flies)'
'Genesis'
Encore:
'Cherry Waves'
'Bored'
'7 Words'