Live Review: Deftones & Rival Schools

Deftones & Rival Schools - HMV Forum, August 27, 2009

Sweaty and spectacular from Chino &co. The other band? Well...

Rarely do you see one performance reflecting another's shortcomings as well as it was portrayed by Deftones and Rival Schools on Thursday.

Rival Schools, still sporting only the one full-length album from 2001, played a special guest slot so derived of anything visually pleasing, their presence swiftly reduced to a minuscule support band. Having said so, their tunes are certainly not the worst of its kind. United By Fate - their debut album- still being a template on which much of future rock-generations will elaborate, their somewhat unique hybrid of melodic geared-up rock still tantalising.

Live though, it's quite a different story. Faceless and utterly dull, they rush through their setlist with little joy and charisma, giving us uninteresting versions of their songs before a decent Used For Glue tries and fails to make up for the rest of the set.

No, far from being here to witness ill-timed jokes about Obama and tracks performed by an impersonation of the band that recorded United By Fate, the crowd tonight are undoubtedly here for Deftones.

For the Sacramento band, edging close to the 15th anniversary of their debut album, survived the dreaded notion of being simply labelled a nu-metal band by proving that they never actually were one. After their (admittedly slightly nu-metalish) masterpiece, 2001's White Pony, followed an uncompromising self-titled record which in its self-confessed herbal haze did little more than shake off those who had recently jumped on their wagon, assuming the band was 'another Limp Bizkit'. My God, how wrong they were.

Nowadays though, with nü-metal temporarily buried alive, Deftones simply face the challenge of providing value for money, something soon proven as an art they have grown to master.

With Sergio Vega stepping in on bass for their beloved Chi Cheng, who is still in a coma following a car crash last year, they entertain the crowd as much as they overwhelm them. Vocalist Chino Moreno still sounds youthful, in familiar style bouncing across the stage and screaming every other word into his own feet, with guitarist Stephen Carpenter providing a gargantuan, dark wall of riffs, layering Abe Cunnigham's immaculate drumming.

They run through a compelling selection of their crowd-pleasing back catalogue, with moshpits erupting for every chorus, every riff, every song. Swiftly it feels like there is no air left in The Forum, but as arguably their heaviest track Elite explodes, oxygen becomes an unnecessary by product, leaving the venue as a dripping haven of aural insanity, skin against skin, sweat against sweat.

And it never really stops. Korea sounds better than it has ever done, Headup brings the crowd to the brink of madness, Back To School get all the girls singing before a Passenger sans Maynard is delivered with an impressive performance from Moreno and first-album-first-single 7 Words finish it all off in a spectacular moshing manner.

Their new album might have been postponed indefinitely, but if tonight's concert proved anything, then it's that they cannot give up just yet. They're simply too damn good.

Words: Brand Barstein

Deftones, HMV FOrum, August 27, 2009

Setlist:

Fieticiera
My Own Summer
Lhabia
Lotion
Hexagram
Needles & Pins
Beware
Elite
Nosebleed
Root
Korea
RX Queen
When Girls Telephone Boys
Hole In The Earth
Engine No. 9
Digital Bath
Be Quiet And Drive
Headup
Change (In The House Of Flies)
Back To School

Passenger
Minerva
7 Words

1:25 PM | 28/08/2009

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