Deftones @ Pier 17 - New York City
May 5th 2022: Deftones with Gojira, and VOWWS @ Pier 17 - New York City
Deftones - Photos Courtesy of Edwina Hay
My first concert ever was in 1998 when I attended the Vans Warped Tour at Randall’s Island about two weeks before I turned 18 years old. It was a few weeks before I began college and I made the trek out to Randall’s Island from Brooklyn via public transportation in order to see punk and ska acts like The Aquabats, Bad Religion, CIV, and many others but a huge reason for my attendance was the Deftones, of Sacramento, CA. During their set at Warped ‘98, a mosh pit formed in front of me and I had to take a bus and two trains home covered in the dirt that circled around in the air and landed on our bodies.
After I got home from that Warped show, my parents made no comment nor asked questions about my filthy appearance as I immediately headed to the bathroom upstairs to take a shower. Then over the next few years, I attended their performances whenever I could including Ozzfest the following year, culminating until when I last saw the band in Sayreville, NJ in 2004 at Starland Ballroom. A friend drove us from NYC to The Garden State where I didn’t realize at the time that my next Deftones concert would take place nearly two decades later at Pier 17 at South Street Seaport in downtown Manhattan. The band was originally scheduled to tour in 2020 in support of their ninth studio album, Ohms, but a worldwide pandemic would cause them to postpone their tour not once, but twice, finally hitting the road for that record in April & May 2022.
On this tour, they are joined by VOWWS, a duo from Australia that resides in Los Angeles, that replaced the 2020 tour opener, Poppy. VOWWS took the stage at 6 PM on the outdoor stage with both of their members, dressed all in black, performing the songs they describe as Death-Pop. Their 30-minute set seemed to be in contrast with the sunny, slightly breezy weather we experienced on a Sunday evening.
The French heavy metal band, Gojira, were next and before they played their first song, a 170 second countdown started and a mosh pit immediately broke out to my left as singer/guitarist Joe Duplantier began to sing. Since their tour with Deftones was delayed by two years, it felt like my neighbors had been waiting a long time for Gojira’s set and I was witnessing their catharsis. Someone raged so hard that they lost their phone and others in the pit immediately tried to return the device to its rightful owner once it was found. Duplantier dedicated their 2001 song, “Love,” to their friends in Deftones and the final one of their set was dedicated to indigenous people all over the world.
Kicking off their headlining performance at 8:20 PM, Deftones began with “Genesis,” the opening track off their newest album, Ohms, to numerous screams from the sold-out crowd. The large screens on opposite sides of the stage began to project different visuals for each song of their setlist. People were ecstatic for “Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away),” their hit single from their 1997 record, Around the Fur. I found that I could barely hear Chino Moreno’s vocals where I was standing since everyone near me was singing along so loudly. The same thing occurred for “My Own Summer (Shove It)” from the same release that happened to be the next song on their setlist.
Chino played guitar for the ninth song of their set, “Digital Bath,” which was followed by “Knife Party,” both songs from their 22-year-old landmark album, “White Pony.” The band concluded their set with another Around the Fur track, “Lotion,” which was followed by “Engine No. 9” from their debut album, Adrenaline, with lyrics from Cypress Hill’s “How I Could Just Kill A Man” peppered in, finishing the night before the 10 PM curfew.
VOWWS
Gojira
