by Petey-X - hadleyd@clear.net.nz

Okee... so I travelled in a bus for 9 hours up to Auckland NZ for the deftones show...

We (myself and the people I was staying with, Leon and 'chelle) went to some guys place for a while before the show and had some beers, then made our way to the Powerstation.

The doors were meant to open at about 8:00 or 8:30 or something, but they hadn't opened when we got there so we made our way up the front and got in almost first.... anyhow, we went straight upstairs to the 20+ area (it's a bar) fortunately the guy checking ID's thought I looked old enough so it was all good. Leon and I grabbed a table that was right at the front upstairs, right smackdab in front of the middle of the stage... awesome seats. I considered going down into the pit, but I'm too much of pussy, and I wanted to enjoy the concert without getting kicked in the head every 20 seconds. After a while the first opening band, Nadir, came out and they pretty much sucked. I'd reviewed one of their CDs for a magazine once, and it pretty much sucked too... very mediocre... second band Balance were more of a hardcore punk thing. THe songs all sounded pretty similar to me, but they had awesome crowd interaction and they were pretty fun.

We saw Ming doing his roadie thing during most of the two shows. Initially we mistook him for Chi...

After about 10 mins wait the lights went down and the smoke machines poured out over the stage. the band came out to some kinda ambient thing (probably the same as other shows). Everyone was going nuts. It was finally happening. After 3-4 years wait, they were finally here. They started off with Lotion, although it took me a few seconds to figure out what song it was. The sound was good, but a little rough.

the set list (atleast how I remember it) was this (not in order). Lotion, Teething, Nosebleed, HeadUp, Engine #9, Shove it, Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), 7 Words, Mascara, Around the Fur, Some trippy thing I didn't recognise, hrmm... that's all I can remember...

Chino moved around the stage a lot, and got down by the monitors, right in the faces of anyone right at the front... he occasionally put the mic down for people to do little parts of the song, but it appeared that most of the people who got the mic in front of them either freaked out, or just didn't know the words.

All the lights in the building were turned off for Mascara, which was pretty cool, but someone forgot to turn them back on again for about the next 2 songs.

I'd have to say the best part of the show for me was hearing Be Quiet and Drive, (my favourite song for the last year and a half) live... it was one of the most intense things I've ever heard! I felt like crying or something... I dunno.. .there's me being a pussy again :)

There were a few things that detracted from the evening a little. The constant stage-divers pissed me off... and made me glad I hadn't gone in the pit. There were two particularly stupid people that stood out that evening tho. Chino was up on the stacks just before the breakdown of 7 words and was about to jump when some moron came and jumped and pulled him down with him. Chino went feet first into the people below them... Whoever that person was, he successfully ruined what would have been a pretty spectacular stunt. The second guy was one of the people who continually stage-dived. The powerstation has a no stage-diving policy, which isn't all that heavily inforced. They do have security to get people off the stage, but they don't kick people out by the look of it. Anyway, some guy was on stage for the nth time and this security guy was trying to grab him. Chi signaled the security dude that it was cool and leave him alone. So what's this moron do to thank Chi? He grabs his bass and tries to kiss it and shit.... mid-song... yeah.. real grateful....

Those things ignored, it was an awesome evening. The band all left the stage after the last song (funny that) and everyone was chanting "WE WANT BORED!!" which was strangely absent from the set (Abe later told me that it was on the setlist, but for some reason it got skipped)... however we knew it wasn't going to happen when the roadies began dismanteling the drumkit. Slowly people began to filter out of the building. My friends and I just hung round, sitting there kinda stunned. Anyway, behind the main bar of the Powerstation is a private bar. My friends know a lot of people and we were able to get in. There were a lot of people there, and the band came in. I met all of them briefly. Talked to Abe for a little bit, and then talked to Chino about Team Sleep and Far (He was impressed by the Water and Solutions shirt I was wearing)... He was pretty surprised I knew about team sleep too.. I guess he figured New Zealanders don't know shit :)... Oh yeah, I talked to Stef for about 30 seconds. He was REALLY stoned... his eyes were going in different directions :) I also met Ming, who was really cool. He laughed at my Far t. He told me he thought they were pussy wimpy rock music :) hehe..

Anyway, we hung around there for about an hour. Most of the people had disappeared from there (including Stef and some chick), and the bar was gonna close. Chino had come up and was talking to my friends and a couple of other people. We were gonna head off to some bar in town (not sure what it's called) and we left and then we found that Chino and Abe were coming with us!!! freaky shit. So a group of about 8 of us + Abe and Chino all walked for what seemed like forever through town. I talked to Abe heaps. Apparently the drums he was playing were just hired, cuz it was gonna cost too much to bring his across. The kit he played that night was apparently pretty shitty.. sounded good to me :) As we were walking Chino was singing songs to himself... El Scorcho for one... but then it degenerated as he tried to get us singing along to Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys songs with him :) hehe... it was fun. Anyway, we got to the club and hung out in there... I asked Abe why they didn't play Can't Even Breathe... he said they've tried, but it just doesn't work.... he said it's one his favourite songs tho. We ended up just sitting in this club for ages. I think the guys were quite happy to be there, cuz they weren't recognised. Anyway... I could go on, but it probably won't be interesting to anyone. Oh yeah, when me, 'chelle and Leon decided to leave (I was tired as fuck, and my contact lenses were messing with me) we were going up the stairs outta the club, and looked back and Chino and Abe were following us :) heh. We were waiting outside for someone and Abe was telling me he needed a piss, so I told him to go back into the club, and I went back to talking to whoever it was I was talking to, and I feel someone nudge me, and I look over, and it's Abe, laughing, taking a piss right in the semi-crowded street. fucking rock star :)

Anyway, we got a cab and took Chino and Abe back to their hotel and then went home.

The next day Leon and I went back to the hotel, as I was interviewing the band for the magazine I write for (A much edited version of this message will end up in the magazine).... I was pretty stoked, as it was with the whole band. We were introduced to the whole band by some girl from the record company. Chino smiled at me when I met him and said "nice to meet you" and laughed. Abe didn't recognise me I don't think. He was pretty trashed that night. It wasn't really an interview so much. We just talked about stuff. Like their music videos. Chi bailed off the shark cages into the lake when they were filming the my own summer video :) They weren't all that stable apparently, which is why Stef is sitting down on them in most of the shots of the clip. The scene right at the end of the video with the skateboarders is meant to be throwing skaters to the sharks.. haha.. Chino talked about his kids for a bit... They all hassled stef about his pot smoking... and just hassled Stef in general, like saying that he just comes up with Pantera riffs, then the rest of the band make the songs good :) That's why there's hardly any guitar on Dai the Flu, cuz Stef sucks (if you believe Chi... but then, this is what he said of Germany "It was n't that good, cuz we don't like white poeple!") he was kidding of course. I got some photos of and with the band, which I'll post or email to anyone who is interested once I get them scanned.....

anyway, I doubt anyone woulda read this far (if you did, email me with your thoughts/comments) so I'll just end it now.... but to sound like a total lamer, it was more or less a dream come true. The band were all cool, and I'm now about a billion times more into the band because of the experience.... Ijust wish I'd bootlegged the show :(

ah well...