Keen readers may remember I placed Private Music in the number 6 spot of my top 10 albums of 2025 list. Its a great record that complements the range of Deftones' sounds over time, while feeling modern and fun. So the announcement of their supporting Australian stadium tour was enough motivation for me to jump in to seeing them live for the first time.
It seems I'm not the only one thinking this was an accessible record. The venue was packed to the rafters with a mix of younger and older fans and those seated around us had a great energy. Fun gig for people watching.
Crowd gathering, energy rising
I've seen a couple of other gigs at Rod Laver Arena - The Killers, and Paramore - and I have not previously seen such a big, hungry crowd. Nor have I seen such a polished stage craft and lighting experience.
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Every song had its own visual presence, unique set-design, emotional weight and arrangement of texture and tone, exploding in character and vibrancy. Camera operators creatively interspersed live footage of the band members with these morphing, evolving visualisers. The first two tracks (screenshots captured above) show just how different the stage looked between this explosive, introductory song, and a standard off the new record.
The band have an impressive dynamic range and the stage craft dynamically matched. Its an audio-visual pairing that feels like it kept all of our lungs and hearts breathing and beating in sync. Yet they know when to pull away. For example, all visual noise is stripped away for Change (in the house of flies) revealing a large red sun, slowly rising behind Chino throughout out the track, to flood the room with bright red light.
Setlist
No notes from me, really. End to end bangers.
The only track I personally would have loved to see is Beware, and thats mostly because of the last 20 seconds of the song 😅
- Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
- Milk of the Madonna
- Diamond Eyes
- Feiticeira
- Digital Bath
- Tempest
- Swerve City
- My Mind is a Mountain
- Mascara
- Around the Fur
- Beauty School
- Sextape
- Rocket Skates
- Infinite Source
- Hole in the Earth
- Change (In the House of Flies)
- Genesis
- Departing the Body ("Souvenir" outro)
The last few seconds of Diamond Eyes. "Thank yeoww"
Encore
- Cherry Waves
- My Own Summer (Shove It)
- 7 Words
Bad company (good)
Oh but what of company - well only the best! Good friends visiting from Adelaide sorted the entire event for me and I'm super thankful. Not only do I feel closer to them for experiencing something so amazing with me - but for rekindling the spark of creativity in my heart that has been threatening to extinguish like the tail of a charmander in the rain lately.
Goofy goobers tour, 2026
Thanks buds. IOU.
Rating: ★★★★★
Supports
Interpol
Interpol seem like a real tricky band to do justice to in a live setting. They've got really odd guitar parts that clash, and vocals that self-bury. They weren't very punchy or energetic. Still cool to see them, as I never expected to, especially at a Deftones gig.
Rating: ★★★
Ecca Vandal
Ecca Vandal are now on my radar! This was definitely a punchy set, just a real foreign entity to my ears - so it was hard to derive real meaning.
Rating: ★★★
Thats the whole belated post, sorry for the delay.
At this rate I'll still be ranting 'bout early May in mid-October!
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