by MrAxoltl@aol.com

This was my first deftones show, and by the far the best concert I've ever been to... I'm still sitting here, the day after shaking my head at how good it was... We waited outside for about an hour and a half, sound check was running behind, so the pre-show ran behind, and we eventually got in a half and hour late... We found seats on the balcony, kinda off center, but still in plain view of the stage, and the lowered pit.... I was delightfully surprised at the choice of music being played over the pa while we were waiting for glassjaw to take the stage (faith no more's 'the real thing')...glassjaw came on stage, and I did their job, they job the crowd going. I suppose I'd have appreciated them more if they were mixed better, but all I could hear was bassy distortion and the snare drum... maybe next time... oh well .... after this another surprise when faith no more's 'album of the year' ... anywho, deftones took the stage and the crowd went nuts. Even more so after the little synth intro and Steph went into the opening of 'Be Quiet and Drive.' Chino was energetic as ever, and tonight he had two boxes at the front of the stage, and was making quick use of them. Chi was swinging his bass around, and it was getting as high as his head--I have no idea how he hasn't seriously injured himself doing that yet.... right after be quiet and drive chino got in the crowd for 'my own summer' and chino was immersed in a sea of hands reaching and grabbing at him. He was shaking hands and grabbing people back, and getting in real close and screaming along with people in their faces--truly amazing. Now, I could go into detail about every song, and how much of an impact they had on me and how gripping of a show they put on, but I figure people will lose interest reading thing anyway so I'll give you all the highlights ... first of all the stage and lighting were cool as hell--they seemed to have a right that had the 'word wide' logo thing from white pony on it--really cool... Nosebleed was crazy, and chino did a crowd dive, which sent security into a frenzy pulling at his legs as he sang like it was nothing. They closed the set with '7 words', my favorite song, because of the obvious power of the song, and some personal meaning. And I was screaming as loud as I could and almost lost it ... anyway, before the song Chino asked us if we could crowd surf him to the bar in the back of the place for a drink. And we did so and he called us 'fucking awesome' and said he wished he could come to a deftones show so he could hang with us--we rule! In the middle of 7 words, right before the 'squeal like a pig' part, Steph just breaks into 'say it ain't so' by weezer' which was a surprise to say the least--because my friends and I joked about them playing at earlier, basically stating no way they'd play it, and they did, so it was enthusiastic hugs all around and after the chorus they stopped, and chino says something along the lines of 'now where were we' ... and chi goes 'I think somewhere around 'squeal like a pig...' yeah' and he Chino goes 'oh yeah', screams it along with the sold out audience and they finished the song and chino got back onstage somehow and they said good night and got off stage... A few minutes later Steph came out and started tinkering with a keyboard on top of his cabs. Then everyone came out, and Chi said 'How about engine no. 9, want to hear that?' and so we did, and it was amazing. They played 'feiticeria' I think, then closed with headup. In which, right before the ' walk into this world...' part, they kinds stopped and chino pointed to a kid on the balcony and told him to jump down into the pit when the stage started... when it did, a kid from the back ran and jumped off the balcony right into the middle of the mosh pit. They finished and thanked us and it was over.

This show was the most emotionally charged I've ever seen, and one of the best experiences of my life. The feeling I got was incredible, as I, and the rest of the sold out show sang along, every word to every song, so loud, that at some points you could hardly hear the band. It was incredible. I got so into the music that I lost track of the songs after the sixth one, and my hands were hurting from hitting the balcony wall restraint so much, that I could hardly move them. ... but the songs broke down to 5 from each album + the weezer cover.... so here's the order up to 6, then just out of order.... Keyboard Intro - Be quiet and drive - my own summer - root - nosebleed - bored - change - mascara - digital bath - street carp - around the fur - korea - 7 words/weezer --encore-- engine no. 9 - feiticeria - headup

well, hope you had as much fun reading this as I did remembering it.... later