live @ 930 Club 11.25.2000
A live concert by the Deftones theoretically lessens one of the group’s drawbacks, which is that on record, the arcane lyrics written by leader Chino Moreno often sours the dynamic accompanying music. During their show at the Patriot Center Sunday night, Moreno’s frenzied vocals combined with a booming sound system to happily obscure most of the words. Thus the Sacramento, California quintet’s music---especially selections from their recent and most accomplished work, “White Pony”---took control. Many of the kids in front of the stage may not have thought this was a positive development, though, and as guitarist Stephen Carpenter led the band though the high volume monochrome shadings of songs like “Korea”, “Digital Bath” “Change (in the House of Flies)” and “Teenager”, a fundamental rock-and-roll truth came clear: it’s hard to mosh to dynamics.
The Deftones have certainly heard the rumblings from their fans that they got too quiet and arty on their new album, and responded by releasing a new single, “Back to School (Mini Maggit)”, a charging rock-rap single that harks back to their early sound, a more conventional style that inspired bands like Korn. The ‘Tones gave the crowd occasion to get rowdy in the pit, egged on by Moreno’s howls and the wildly swinging dreadlocks of bassist Chi Cheng, on songs like “Bored”, “Root” and “Lotion”, but it was when the group balanced that aggressive earlier sound with the dynamics they are currently interested in--as during “Knife Prty”--that they were most powerful. During those peaks, the Deftones hinted how bracing their skill at balancing loud rock and subtle vicissitudes can be.
Washington Post, November 2000
