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September 24th 2003, "Jahrhunderthalle" Frankfurt, Germany
www.deftonesworld.com
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I moved to Frankfurt from London 3 weeks ago and there is no better way to settle
into a new town in a new country than seeing the trademark skull and roses posters
plastered all over the place. Last night the deftones played at Frankfurt's
Jahrhunderhalle, a tiny but very elegant venue (think along the lines of Disney's
Expo centre, like a giant golfball cut in half and you have an idea of what it looks like).
I got to the venue at 10am, snuck round the back to see if I could get a glimpse of
the band, perhaps even a chance meeting, but my plans were soon scuppered as an overly
efficient German security guard caught me and told me to go round the front.
This happened on 2 further occasions until he finally threatened to not let me into
the show in the evening.
So I wait around like a Billy No-mates till around 6pm when some people finally start
to show up. But what surprises me is that lack of people even a couple of hours before
the show. If this was England we'd be queing round the block, but no so here in Germany.
Finally we're let in and the coolest thing happens. The tones' tour manager comes out
and gives the people at the very front some wristbands entitling us to enter a special
area right between the stage and the crowd to watch the deftones - ie no gap, no security
guards between us and the stage. Awesome or what. So throughout the show I was never more
than a metre away from God himself.
Revolution Smile play, the're ok but don't do themselves any favours by ending with a
10 minute long epic song - they lose the crowd's attention and respect after the first
3 mins of the song in question.
Next up it's Maynard and Chums and there's nothing of any surprise here, typically tight
set, a certain mathematic quality to everything they do. Maynard as usual masking himself
from view and one has to wonder why he does it.
Then 9pm, the chosen ones amongst us enter the special section at the front and the
Deftones take to the stage to a pink backdrop. Setlist is as follows:-
Minerva
Bloody Cape
BQAD
Mx
Shove It
Bored
Digital Bath
Korea
Mascara
Around the Fur
Battleaxe
Hexagram
Headup
Change
7 Words featuring Root in the middle
Great performance but again left me disappointed at the lack of imagination and thought
that went into making the setlist. I could have redicted the songs they played and the
order in which they'd play them too. How I long for them just to one day take to the stage
and play the shit that the true fans really want to hear, Boys Republic, Damone, etc. Don't
get me wrong, I love the usual shit they play but gone is the magic I felt the first
couple if times I saw them when I really didn't have a clue what was coming next.
The one surprise addition to the set was Mx, something that they have never played before
when I've been to see them but even then they did a botch job of it, Chino missing lines
and singing the wrong verse.
There was also less crowd interaction than usual, maybe because this was a German show
and the language barrier etc. Moments of light relief and chit chat were few and far
between. In fact "motherfuckers just stood there and played", something Chino accused
a certain other band of doing a couple of months back.
And finally some light was shed as to why the deftones haven't attempted Passengr on this
tour yet with the assistance of Maynard. Halfway through the set, Chino responded to the
crowd's demand of this song by telling us that he'd love to have played it, it's just that
Maynard is a scared motherfucker. Then Chino took the piss out of him for the next couple
of minutes and said that he was nothing in comparison with Chi Cheng.
Security were bastards too. Typically power crazy, they beat up my friend for drinking a
can of beer that Chi had given him. Arseholes.
Anyway, I'm going to see them in Düsseldrof next week, hopefully we'll see a different set
list but I doubt it......
ajay@aamin.fsnet.co.uk
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