Deftones singer Chino Moreno takes to the air during Thursday’s performance. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Deftones

Deftones energized a packed Frost Bank Center on Thursday, the alternative-metal act’s first San Antonio stop since its 2022 tour. Experimental rockers The Mars Volta and shoegaze band Fleshwater joined the California-based headliner.

Deftones played to a crowd of mostly Gen Z kids, proving the band has managed to have staying power as many of its contemporaries aged like milk and fell out of favor. The group was frequently lumped into the nu-metal camp during the peak of its popularity, but lead singer Chino Moreno has made it clear he and his companions set themselves apart.

“It’s all on record,” Moreno said in an interview with metal mag Kerrang! “We told motherfuckers not to lump us in with nu metal because when those bands go down we aren’t going to be with them.”

And so it was.

A young crowd decked out in the fashions of the early aughts screamed as if they were seeing the Beatles. Clearly, Deftones aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’re purportedly working on a new album.

The set kicked off with “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away),” followed immediately by “My Own Summer (Shove It),” a moment that whipped the mosh pit into a frenzy. Their most popular song “Change (In the House of Flies)” came toward the end of the set. The encore that followed included “Minerva,” “Bored” and “7 Words.”

Moreno delivered the soft, seductive vocals that set the band apart from its peers. His voice floated like smoke over the heavy crunch of guitar that was de rigueur in the aughts.

The tour is going well it seems. Just this week, Deftones announced it’s adding more dates through the summer with stops in Canada, Minnesota, Buffalo, Cleveland, Baltimore and beyond.

Though Deftones headlined Thursday’s show, The Mars Volta brought its own alternative clout to the bill. The El Paso band has used the tour to debut a previously unannounced new album titled lucro sucio: los ojos del vacio, which translates to “dirty profits: the eyes of the void.”

The new material didn’t really sound like The Mars Volta so much as a band inspired by The Mars Volta. The act only played material from the new, 18-track album, with nary a selection from critically acclaimed releases Frances the Mute and De-Loused at the Comatorium.

Imagine writing an epic like “The Widow” and denying the crowd from hearing it. Excuse our French, but that song fucks.

Considering it was The Mars Volta’s first and only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, it seems like a grave omission.

Judging by the absence of heads bobbing or bodies moving, the crowd’s reception was less than enthused — maybe even a bit confused.

But the one thing that can be expected from the experimental band is the unexpected.

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.