Deftones In Baltimore
Tim Vuotto ~ 11/06/2025
I attended a Deftones show in Baltimore, MD with a longtime friend of mine and it was a blast. I've been listening to Deftones for about 10 years and this particular show happened to occur 3 weeks after they released their newest album “Private Music”. Deftones hype was at an all time high so the timing was perfect.
Pre Show
Doors opened at 6 and we live about an hour and a half away so we left around 4:30. Pretty smooth sailing until we got close to Baltimore. After which we decided to get off of 95 and go through downtown to avoid some of the traffic. Let me tell you, with zero offense intended towards anyone who lives in Baltimore. I'm sure your city is beautiful and we were just on the “bad side of town” we’re completely to blame blah blah blah. But I’ve gotta say… what a shithole. I’ve been to Philly a million times and I was shocked. Hating on peoples cities aside, we arrived a little past 6. bought our merch, got our booze and jumbo hotdogs, which unironically was the best hotdog I’ve ever had, and then finally found our seats.
Openers
They had two openers for our show, both being punk acts. A band called “The Barbarians of California” and a UK band called “Idles” both were meh, but they served their purpose. I wish there was something great and or impressive to say about either but honestly, I've got nothing. I’m a tad bit jealous of Canada because System of a Down opened for them at a festival they headlined before our show. I won't hate on The Barbarians because from what I understand, they're a relatively new band and I'm assuming this was one of their first real gigs. So it was cool for that alone, hope they take off, all power to them. Idles on the other hand were just your stereotypical punk band, performing half naked, pink hair and all their songs were about overdosing, getting shitfaced and disorderly and/or being a disappointment to everyone. Nothing special and definitely nothing that hasn't been done a million times a million times better. The openers went till 9 and then the main show began.
Deftones
At 9 the lights went out, the music on the PA system shut off and the opening guitar riff for “Be quiet and drive (far away)” began. It slowly built up until it hit its climax and stopped, at which point Chino Moreno’s voice exclaimed out of the dark “Go!” And then like an explosion rippling through the arena the entire band came in, the lights came on and the place erupted. One of the cool things they did as opposed to other concerts I’ve gone to, is they rarely stopped playing. One song always led right into the next only occasionally pausing to change sets. After “Be quiet and drive (far away)” it transitioned right into “my own summer (shove it)”. They sounded amazing, the entire show was exactly what I’d hoped it would be. I was impressed with how good Chino sounded, even though his vocal cords are supposedly shot. I had someone who went to both the show in Philly and our show in Baltimore tell me he thought he sounded better at our show. I found that interesting. I was also particularly impressed with Abe Cunningham’s performance on drums. I always knew Abe was a talented drummer, but hearing him live was an experience in itself.
Review
They were amazing. From sound production, stage aesthetics to the music itself. I’ve heard before that they really didn’t sound great live, but I have no clue why people would say that, I thought they were phenomenal. One of the coolest things I noticed from it is they actually allowed people to mosh and crowd surf. I know it sounds stupid, but every other show I’ve been to they’ve been pretty hard assed about not actually having a legit pit. It pretty much was just people running around in a circle like assholes. But no, people were throwing elbows around smashing into one another, it was awesome. Another thing I noticed was the average age group at the show leaned heavily towards younger people. I was accustomed to seeing “old school” bands filled with people over the age of 50. so I was honestly shocked to be surrounded by people in my age range. I have since read multiple articles on Nu-Metal making a huge return, as Gen-Z is resonating with it and I believe it for sure now. Definitely one of my favorite shows I’ve ever been to with my only regret being I didn’t see them when they came to Philly, it was definitely an experience worth seeing twice.
Setlist
They followed a pre-decided setlist in which they would play the same songs for almost every show for the majority of their tour. However, our show came after the new album was released so they swapped out 3 songs on the original setlist, for the 3 singles from the new album. They played for about 2 ½ hours hitting songs from their entire album discography. My personal highlights were “Be quiet and drive (far away)”, “My own summer (shove it)”, “rocket skates”, “change (in the house of flies)”, “sextape”, “Milk of the Madonna", “cherry waves”, and “7 words”.
Closing remarks
If they happen to be in your city, go and see them. Even if you’re not necessarily a fan of theirs, it’s worth experiencing. Tickets were relatively cheap too, coming in around $120 for modest second level seating. Totally worth every penny, go see them.