I recently had the good fortune to catch Deftones and Periphery on the Koi No Yokan Tour on March 15th at a sold-out show, in Nashville, TN at Marathon Music Works (one of the more awesome venues in Nashville)! While a fan of both bands, I’d never gotten the chance to see either one, so this was a real treat.
Periphery kicked things off with a set of “progressive” metal (or as I and others of my ilk like to call it, ‘djent’!). For a band with such technically demanding music, I was expecting there to be mistakes or at least for the band to not sound as good as they did on recordings, however, Periphery were impeccably tight, and their set was flawless! My only complaint is that, for a tour with two bands on the bill, the supporting act should have gotten a longer set. Periphery’s set felt unjustly short, featuring a mere 7 or 8 tracks (by my best approximation). What they lacked in quantity, they made up for in quality though, playing several tracks off of their latest record, including “Ragnarok”, “Scarlet”, “Make Total Destroy”, and “Facepalm Mute”. They also played older tracks, “Jetpacks Was Yes v2.0” and “Icarus Lives!” from their previous release. While much of the audience seemed to be comprised of concert-goers in their mid-late 20’s, and 30’s, who appeared to have never heard the band, many were soon Periphery converts, head-banging and moshing by the end of the set. If other crowds at this tour are similar to that night’s, I can see this being a big chance for Periphery to grow their fanbase to include older-aged fans.
Deftones took the stage, kicking their set off with “Diamond Eyes”, the title-track from their 2010 release. Their set featured a whopping 20 songs, and went on for about an hour and forty-five minutes! Despite it being the “Koi No Yokan” tour, the band only played 4 tracks off of Koi No Yokan (by my best count)! Otherwise, they played songs from each of their albums, reaching all the way back to their 1995 release, Adrenaline for their 2-song encore to play “Engine No. 9” and “7 Words”. Through this long set, Chino Moreno must’ve gotten a hell of a workout—not content to stand in one place, he seemed to always be running or jumping about on the stage and is probably one of the most athletic frontmen I’ve ever seen. Deftones put on a hell of a show, and if you have the chance to catch them on this leg of the tour in the US (through March 30th), or in late April/early May before they head overseas, they’re definitely worth seeing!
[Nathan Katsiaficas Photography]
