By Jase Walker
As Deftones mark the start of a shitload of incredible shows one after another throughout February this year, the gig gods smile upon me in this cold wet month of our lord. Deftones are finally getting the proper massive traction they’ve been so sorely deserving of for so long and have properly graduated to the biggest arenas across the ÜK and Europe. Tonight’s show at Amsterdam admittedly is a bit more intimate when compared with the behemoth shows in the ÜK and Germany but I won’t complain because I think AFAS is a pretty solid venue.
Along for the ride are punk outfit Drug Church and hip-hop upstarts Denzel Curry so tonight is set to be a pretty loud one that I’m probably going to be feeling in my bones for a while, until Thursday at least.
As far as today goes, I really do have to have a bit of a moan about AFAS’ shocking queue speed today. I’ve been here a fair bit and nearly an hour to get through the queue, which wasn’t even particularly long, and missing literally half of Drug Church’s set is shockingly bad. What’s even more puzzling is that the floor area is probably barely a quarter full so what the hell they’ve been doing is baffling.
Anyway, Drug Church are in session and their sound genuinely confuses me at times because the music on the whole sounds fully pop punk quite a fair bit, maybe bordering on post-hardcore at times but this is totally at odds with their gruff and gritty singers voice. Frontman Patrick Kindlon seems confused at one point with some ladies down the front doing the macarena which throws him off his commentary about the venue a bit.
He continues to mention that AFAS is quite a fair bit smaller than the other venues they’ve run through over this tour but remarks that Amsterdam is getting a bit more of a special show due to the difference in intimacy which I can definitely agree with. The crowd is digging Drug Church from my point of view as I’ve taken the old man seat for tonight and I’m up on the balcony because I am currently in bits after a crash course in IKEA DIY yesterday so I’m not keen on spending the whole evening standing.
I have to give credit to Drug Church on how great they sound tonight, it’s often so common for openers in larger venues to get a rough deal on how they’re mixed but it’s solid, thumpy, nice and loud. While they’re definitely not my cuppa, what I saw of them was a good solid slice of fun punk that’s had a great response from the crowd. The band is super humble about getting the opportunity to be openers on this tour, while they’ve been aware that people aren’t really there to see them specifically, but they’ve had a fantastic time all the same and made the most of it.
Denzel Curry kicks things off and I fully realize I’m not going to really win over anyone with this but this really really isn’t for me and I can’t engage with this music at all. The crowd seems really into it I guess, which is awesome for him and he’s doing well getting people fully fired up and essentially taking the show fully into his own hands.
There’s a ton of crowd movement and people are super into it but it’s just washing over me as a bunch of noise with no real form. I don’t get it and I can’t get into it so I’m mostly just disengaging and disassociating throughout the set. I’m obviously happy that people are buzzing off it but I’m mostly just counting the minutes until I get to see Deftones. Sorry.
The moment the room darkens and harkens the beginning of Deftones, screams and cheers erupt across the room as they kick things off with ‘Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)’ which is a bit of a curve ball opener for me as I would have thought this would be a late set ace in the hold but I get the feeling they’re wanting to move their material forward a bit finally.
I’m expecting the set to lean super heavy on ‘private music’, given it’s the album tour, but I think for bands like Deftones with such a lengthy back catalogue of music, sometimes you need to rip the plaster off and say the new era of music is coming whether people like it or not.
The visuals on the absolutely massive screen behind the band switch up between set piece videos and faded live footage of the band burned into the background which is a pretty cool effect. Several screens also hang over the stage in the shape of a large X and expend the visuals up and outwards across the audience.
I’m starting to feel a bit more attracted to the ‘private music’ material the more I hear it admittedly but then my attention is broken by a sudden swerve to ‘Rocket Skates’ and the flashing red/blue and monochrome visuals with some super creepy horror-like footage. Followed up right after with a same album banger of ‘Diamond Eyes’ and the other lighting elements have suddenly came into view with four thin pillars split between the far edges of the stage and a super bright horizonal line across the bottom of the stage.
If I go back through all the times I’ve seen Deftones previously, they’ve always had a pretty awesome production that’s been beautiful and we’ll suited to the music but this particular setup is massively ambitious and shows Deftones are fully ready for the big leagues at this point. The layout and the like ultimately is very minimalist compared to many shows that have been so stuffed with lightning in as many possible ways such as Electric Callboy, Ghost, Bring Me The Horizon or Sleep Token.
What really stands out though is just how gorgeous everything looks, there’s the odd moment of intense strobey stuff but the mix of super clean lighting against a gigantic single pane backdrop that mixes archive footage of older films and strong flat colours in other moments is stunning to look at. I genuinely find it hard to concentrate on what the band are doing most of the time because I’m too busy getting sucked into the overall visual feast that’s going on everywhere else.
The crowd repeatedly opens gigantic voids in the middle of the room to the slightest provocation: it doesn’t matter whether the following heavier moment lasts 15 seconds or a minute, the centre expands and contracts like a lung repeatedly. I’m overjoyed to get treat to a ‘Koi No Yokan’ ‘banger, ‘Swerve City’, easily one of the fattest riffs Deftones have ever made and the audience clearly agrees considering literally everyone below me is all bouncing in unison! And keeping within ‘Koi No Yokan’, ‘Rosemary’ right after, beautiful stuff.
The unmistakable dreamy intro of ‘Sextape’ bounces around the room, the visuals take on slow motion crashing of waves on a shore and the room erupts into whoops and cheers. The center of the crowd switches from ferocious moshing to a more friendly jumping core with waving arms as they all get lost in the chorus. The rising deep red sun behind Chino that steadily rises as they play through ‘Change (In The House Of Flies)’ is a real tasteful touch of artistry that makes sitting up in balcony feel like the best choice to soak this all up in.
As we approach the end of the main set I think I need to give ‘private music’ another proper look as I think I might have judged it a bit too harshly and need to let it soak in a bit. The newer songs definitely come across quite different in a live context and it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to go back to an album after hearing a bunch live gave me a reason to reassess it.
As for the encore, a good oldie gets a feature of ‘My Own Summer (Shove It)’ which sees the crowd go into a massive frenzy all over again and finishes with ‘7 Words’ to play things out.
I think Deftones are truly at the peak of their game now and commanding the proper level of respect and weight that they so truly deserve. This sort of performance is what puts bands on the real peak and top billings of festivals worldwide but I think this is going to finally see them clinch a headliner slot at Download festival and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s as soon as 2027. It’s been a long time coming and I couldn’t think of them as being more deserving of a headline spot at one of the most well known worldwide rock festivals than they are right now.
This tour is cementing a legacy for this band.
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