Deftones brought youthful energy to a crowd more than half their age
DEFTONES perform at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on September 17, 2025. // facebook.com/tmobilecenter
Deftones
with Idles and The Barbarians of California
T-Mobile Center
Wednesday, September 17
Nu metal has seen a massive boost in recent years, and seeing metal stalwarts Deftones headline a nearly sold-out T-Mobile Center on the heels of a new (and really good) new album shows it has no sign of stopping. Not bad for a band I saw for the first time nearly 30 years ago, in late July of 1996. It was my first-ever pit and I got punched in the stomach.
The last time I saw Deftones was at Lawrence’s Liberty Hall on the White Pony tour. That was 25 years ago and the band has been through a lot, including a resurgence in popularity, due in no small part to a slew of young kids who’ve gotten into the band. The crowd skewed younger than I would’ve even expected back in the Adrenaline/Around the Fur/White Pony era in which I originally saw them, and those kids were HYPED.
I mean, hell, they played half of Around the Fur and those songs were still matched in crowd response to tracks like “Sextape” and “Entombed”–a response which involved a lot (like A LOT a lot) of the crowd singing almost matching frontman Chino Moreno’s vocals. A lot of that was due to a pretty heavy amount of reverb and effect layered on his singing which, while sounding cool, did have the unfortunate side effect of lending everything a bit too much echo, as though he was singing in a concrete basement.
That said, Deftones’ set was loud as hell, lit up like a disco, and vibey as fuck. “my mind is a mountain” saw scenes from Jodorowsky’s psychedelic masterpiece The Holy Mountain on the video screens, while the lighting rig with an X of video screens raised and lowered as the mood required, occasionally rendering moodier songs as though they were in a more intimate theater, rather than the indoor expanse of an arena. The stage was bathed in red for “Change (In the House of Flies)” and it felt like the show could’ve easily ended on that highlight.
Even though it was the end of Deftones’ very lengthy tour, they still played like they had all the energy of the young 20-somethings they once were, with Moreno’s voice ably handling the screams and singing, all the while moving around the stage with vibrancy. Carrying that youthful vitality appropriately, they went back to where it all started to close out the encore with a pair of tracks from their Adrenaline debut, “Engine No. 9” and “7 Words.”
British punk rockers Idles were Deftones’ direct support, and it’s amazing for this band, whose first area show was just two blocks down Grand at RecordBar, to now be playing to a packed and receptive arena crowd. It translated surprisingly well, too. Their second song, “Gift Horse,” was introduced with a “Viva Palenstina!” and their guitarist crowd surfing and playing, each of which was received rapturously. Just song after song after song, barely introduced, and a level of energy which was fucking infectious. Their post-punk was a sharp, angular counterpoint to the ethereality of Deftones, and while I’ve always enjoyed Idles’ music, Wednesday’s set made me a full-blown fan. The band’s set drew largely from last year’s Tangk, but was strangely absent of anything from their recent soundtrack for Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. Ending with two gems from Joy as an Act of Resistance, “Never Fight a Man with a Perm” and the perennial underdog anthem that is “Danny Nedelko” left the audience buzzing.
The Barbarians of California are the new project from AWOLNATION frontman Aaron Bruno, and he seems to think he’s still the draw. The band is good–think metalcore cowboys Spirit World and you’re pretty close to the mark–but Bruno seems to think he’s got the next Velvet Revolver. Sadly, his stage moves and vocal presence are nowhere near Scott Weiland, although he gave it his best, up to and including briefly surfing through the crowd. Bruno kept acting like a headliner, though, constantly exhorting the crowd to move or give him more, and one lengthy monologue resulted in a “Shut the fuck up!” from the back of the room, and frankly, I agreed. The cameramen onstage the entire length of their set didn’t help matters, either.
Deftones setlist
Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
My Own Summer (Shove It)
my mind is a mountain
Diamond Eyes
Tempest
Swerve City
Digital Bath
Rocket Skates
Sextape
Around the Fur
Headup
Entombed
Hole in the Earth
infinite source
Change (In the House of Flies)
Genesis
milk of the madonna
—
Cherry Waves
Engine No. 9
7 Words
Idles setlist
Colossus
Gift Horse
Mr. Motivator
Mother
Car Crash
1049 Gotho
Divide and Conquer
The Wheel
Never Fight a Man With a Perm
Danny Nedelko
The Barbarians of California setlist
Dopamine Prophecy
No Sir I Won’t Wear Your Jacket
The Walrus
Bazooka
By the Time I Get to Mexico
Where Are the Punks?!?!
Modern Fashion
The Library
