Anyone who’s seen Deftones live at pretty much any point in their career knows that they’re truly a force to be reckoned with.
Through any era of their now decades-long career, they’ve managed to bring an impressive aura and energy to the stage that’s pretty much unmatched by any of their peers.
But Deftones in the mid 90’s? Jesus Christ. A recently unearthed video posted to YouTube is a reminder of just how feral the band was in those early days.
The video captures a full record store set that took place in Philadelphia in October of 1996. Interestingly enough, the band was on tour with KISS at the time. If that sounds pretty wild, Chino Moreno would agree. Here’s him reflecting on the strange experience:
“One time, the second biggest tour we ever got – I still don’t know how we even got on this tour – but we got a chance to open up for Kiss for a whole month, playing in arenas. The hardest band to open up for ever. And not because they’re the best band, but basically the people that go to see Kiss are there to see Kiss, they could give a shit less who’s the opening band.
And at that point it was on Adrenaline, our songs were pretty abrasive, that sound had not really developed yet and people didn’t really understand it. So we’d be playing and there would literally be guys in the front row in full Kiss make-up just standing there flipping us off for the whole set.
Wouldn’t put their arms down. There’d be times where I’d be like, “Motherfucker, I know your arm’s tired, you can put it down, I know you hate us.” It was really rough, but at the same time still the experience of a lifetime. It’s not like we cared, we were just like, “Fuck it”. We played so hard every night, it was a learning experience.”
Based on the time, this would’ve been about a year after Adrenaline and another year before Around the Fur would hit, so you’re getting that would explain the setlist: 0:34 Teething 4:37 Root 9:20 Bored 14:37 Nosebleed 20:19 7 Words.
Most bands would dream of sounding this huge on a shitty, tiny PA. But most bands aren’t Deftones. Enjoy.
