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Deftones
..10/17/00 San
Jose
......Deftones
lead singer Chino Moreno was all but out of breath
after just 30 seconds of "My Own Private Summer," and a vein on his
forehead looked moments away from bursting. Masters of skewed, raw emotion, the
band poured itself out in every conceivable way onstage; the sweltering
conditions inside the Venue, compounded by the audience's ardent reception,
left everyone involved in the event. And as Moreno dove into the crowd to start
"Korea," the almost spastic triggering of the packed theatre spoke
for itself: Right here, right now, this is a band that matters.
......The Sacramento,
Calif., hardcore quintet is at the most pivotal point of its career, on the
cusp of rock stardom after seven years of being one step out of reach of the
mainstream, even as an earlier record, "Adrenaline,"
foreshadowed the current popularity of rap-metal. Judging by the band's debut
at No. 3 on the Billboard pop charts last week with "White
Pony," Still, recent success hasn't dispelled that perhaps the
Deftones remains too smart for its own good among its rap-metal peers.
.....Its continued
flirtation with artier, more ambient textures-which sprung from the addition of
DJ Frank Delgado to the fracas-is not yet above awkward status amid the
requisite head banging. This remained a band that knows its own potential and
capability; it's just having difficulty with how to employ it. Moreno continues
to emerge as the vital instrument of the band: Where he once howled to match
the density of Stephen Carpenter's guitar crunch, he now employs a cunning
falsetto on new tunes "Change" and "Digital Bath"
that flirted with the angelic before giving into the menacing dirge rock. The
contrasting light and dark made for the night's best music, as a fiery, mid-set
version of "Feiticiera" bridged the gap between the dour
passion of the Cure's Robert Smith or Nick Cave and the frantic screaming of
Korn's Jonathan Davis into emotional hardcore music.
.... Though Deftones
music requires heaviness to convey Moreno's world-weary bitterness, the group
relies exclusively on volume to do the job, leaving little room for the spacey
textures of Delgado's scratching to peek through the distortion. Coupled with
Moreno's cryptic shrieks, the soft verse/insanely loud chorus dynamic that
drives "Around the Fur, the enthusiasm is there; the Deftones just need
the ambition. After a decade of preparation, the Deftones and their lyrical,
dark rock music are poised to make the transition from cult favorites to
mainstream successBy Randy
Cohen
Web Site All photos and written
material courtesy of Rock Publication
.Copyright © 2001
E-mail at
Rockpub@aol.com
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Members Info !
Chino Moreno - vocals/guitar Stephen Carpenter- guitar
Chi Cheng - bass
Abe Cunningham - drums
Frank Delgado - turntables
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