Deftones

What was needed was some downtime. A little bit of time to chill and enjoy some good rockin' music. At first thought, the intelligent evolving music of the Deftones would top anyone's list on this sweaty late afternoon.

The Sacramento quintet had other things on their mind as they emerged to hordes of gleeful punters. Things kicked off nicely with Feiticeira, enticing a lot of thrashing about and sing alongs.

Unfortunately the PA was questionably meager, which was a problem throughout the weekend, and muddied the band's sound. Still at the front it wasn't too bad. A double whammy of My Own Summer and Be Quiet And Drive whet eager fans appetites.

As Minerva was anthemically aired out, many were perhaps expecting a flurry of material from their recently released fourth album. Unfortunately that was not to be, with only three new songs played, the band choosing to meld material from their previous back catalogue.

Despite expanded waistlines (Chi & Chino), the band sounded tighter than ever and were more 'in touch with their active environment' (they weren't stoned off their faces) than on previous occasions. Chino happily zipped across the stage and nipped down to both ends of the split barrier.

After a disappointingly average rendition of Change, some much needed va-va-voom was injected with some old-skool Deftones in the form of Root. Following on was a hard hitting Head Up, which saw two lucky fans hoisted onstage to provide backing vocals, leaving just enough time for the maniacal 7 Words. Never had I witnessed so many adolescent males willingly hammer themselves into each other in circle pits.(Until Metallica)

A good set on the whole, the Deftones could emphatically claim job well done. Just a shame a few of those beautiful newies were shelved.

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