Deftones rock a loyal Pittsburgh crowd

PITTSBURGH − If you weren't wearing a black T-shirt, or at least something outwardly black, you looked out of place Wednesday at the Petersen Events Center.

For this was a night of intense metal, starring two seasoned bands − Deftones and Gojira − that have been causing heads to bang for decades.

Top-billed Deftones thrilled a Pittsburgh crowd of about 3,200, who first bought tickets for the original August 2020 date.

With that show postponed multiple times by the pandemic, Deftones frontman Chino Moreno seemed determined to make up for lost time Wednesday, never staying still during his California band's 19-song set. He hopped around, slapped high-fives with fans from atop a front-center stage amplifier, and demonstrated wicked cool microphone lasso twirls − on at least one occasion while running in place.

Moreno's screams and shouts offered catharsis while fueling songs like "My Own Summer (Shove It)," which earned an immediate audience roar from its first salvo of churning guitars.

Though let's be blunt: Metal shows in The Pete's cavernous, acoustically challenged setting are usually problematic.

If this was a night you sought nuance in Moreno's vocals, or craved to discern the guitar layering from Deftones co-founder Stephen Carpenter, or zero in on what intricacies new bassist Fred Sablan offered, then you were out of luck. The overall sound wasn't so much eardrum-pounding as muddy.

Rarely did any band member get a chance to show off their solo chops. And while the lyrics sounded murkily lost in the mix, fans knew all the words off-by-heart anyway, and eagerly grooved along to faves like "Knife Prty" and "Change (In The House of Flies)" for which audience members gladly heeded Moreno's request to put their hands in the air.

Songs with slower, comparatively softer passages raised the clarity from Moreno's vocals, as on "Be Quiet (And Drive Far Away)"

"Pittsburgh, huh? You bunch of Pirates," Moreno bantered three-fourths through the show. For the encore leadoff, "Lotion," Moreno changed into a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt he had snagged that afternoon at the Buccos-Dodgers game at PNC Park.

On multiple occasions, he sincerely thanked the crowd just for showing up.

Deftones gave spectators plenty to look at, with a lights and laser show far above average, which heightened the action.

French metal band Gojira, a Japanese name for Godzilla, preceded Deftones with a 50-minute set of thunderous metal.

Taking the stage after a 120-second countdown on a large screen, Gojira's heavy riffs spawned a sizable mosh pit in the front-middle of the general admission floor.

Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier was the evening's standout instrumentalist, bashing away at his drums thrillingly from a riser almost the width of the stage.

A forklift needed several trips to haul away his drums and special staging after Gojira's well-received set.

Lead guitarist Christian Andreu conjured mightiness on his flying-V axe.

Though as with Deftones, vocals from singer Joseph Duplantier, the drummer's brother, were lost in the sludge.

Many spectators weren't at their seats for the 7 p.m. start by warmup act VOWWS, which according to its Spotify page "are an Australian duo, based in Los Angeles (that) describe their project as 'Death-Pop' - existential angst and longing, feeding on a diet of popular culture, cinema and advertising.

Hunched over their guitars, keys and pedals, their silhouettes framed by shafts of red and green lights, VOWWS delivered a droning, dark, moody sound that took a minute but ultimately became absorbing.

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For more Deftones photos, check out the work of freelance photographer Mike Papariella at timesonline.com/entertainment

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Deftones rock a loyal Pittsburgh crowd