Live Review

Deftones – Brixton Academy

• 23rd Dec 2010

I’d call myself a pretty epic Deftones fan, however, I’ll admit, ‘Diamond Eyes’ (the recent album) didn’t grab me straight away… this show totally turned me around.

With support coming from Coheed & Cambria, this feels like a really important show on the tour, a sell out at Brixton Academy, and the atmosphere is sweaty, intense and a little bit scary.

From the pit barrier as ‘My Own Summer’ kicks in, there are fans flying over the front and being run up the sides back into the crowd… we miss these bits stood pensively at the bar at any usual show, but standing at the front is worth the impending risk of injury, after all, it’s been a few years since these guys were last in the UK and a lot has happened since then… Chi Cheng’s tragic accident and a bunch of failed attempts at the new album have left fans dribbling from the corners of their mouths anxiously waiting for more (none more so than the guy ejected from the pit barrier in front of us whilst violently throwing up… nice)

The stage itself is plain, stripped back and free from all the usual trappings of your typical metal concert, no backdrop, no special effects, just Chino Moreno legging it around the stage like a madman in between those trademark melodic troughs and those bloodcurdling screaming peaks.

The atmosphere makes it feel as if every song’s a hit, and the new album tracks seep effortlessly into the mix, ‘you’ve seen the butcher’ just as at home as ‘knife party’ or ‘mascara’

It’s clear for the fans and the band alike that this concert has been a long time coming… and as Chino descends into the crowd, he’s enveloped into the arms of everyone at the front of the barrier with all too much ease.

This show evidently means as much to the band as it means to the UK fans, a sell out in an iconic venue, a fantastic support and an atmosphere and energy that doesn’t compare to anyone I’ve seen recently.

Deftones deserve every success that 2010’s seen them have, the fantastic new album (now I’m converted) and a fantastic string of tour dates against all the adversity of the previous year’s troubles… here’s to the next UK tour.