Breaking In HOB Dallas with the Deftones
The House of Blues in Dallas opened last week. When I scheduled my trip to Dallas for this month, I made sure there were some good shows going on. I was actually really excited to see that the Deftones were playing a two night stand. It’s always debatable as to which show of a multiple show stand is better. Some would argue that the first night has an excitement that the second night lacks. Some would argue that seeing the last show has its own special energy and a feeling of the band leaving it out there on the table. It’s probably a little of both, which is why I always jump at the chance to see bands more than once on a tour or back to back in two different cities. (But I digress.)
Okay, so back to the HOB Dallas..it’s in a part of town that I hadn’t driven in previously. (When I head down to that area, I usually take public transit so I don’t have to deal with parking.) Of course, I missed my turn and had to use the GPS on my phone to find the place, but that was fine. It’s rad to walk up to the building. A multi-story brick building with some sort of historical significance (I’ll look it up later) with the background of downtown Dallas for eye candy. I missed both opening bands (series finale of Gilmore Girls, come on now...) but got there in time to get a Shiner and find a good spot near the sound booth.
For comparison’s sake, the floor of HOB Dallas is larger than the one in SD. It also has an extra bar, stage left (similar to HOB Las Vegas). I didn’t head up to the balcony because I didn’t have time, but maybe I will check that out when I return on Thursday. Sound was awesome and their security guys haven’t been issued the memo to be assholes yet, so all good there.
So back to the Deftones. I’d seen them at the soulless Sports Arena for last year’s Taste of Chaos tour and was still blown away at how good they were. So in a smaller venue, they were completely, absolutely earth shattering. I’m not a die hard Deftones fan, and I was definitely in the minority in that crowd. If you’ve seen the Deftones live before, you know that Chino has this little half-ramp, stage riser that he sings on for the majority of the night. It’s actually awesome because it gives you a really good view of him. (BTW, sightlines at HOB Dallas are good. ) So he was wearing his Chino uniform of a black tee, a pair of black cutoff Dickies with an army belt barely holding them up, white grandpa boxers, knee high red and blue striped athletic socks and lo top black Chuck Taylors. (Yeah, yeah, I have a schoolgirl crush on him, leave me alone.) So behind Chino and the band, there was an LED screen, which played a series of arty almost-prOn-like black and white videos/visualizations all night. That cool factor was high. It’s obvious that Chino is the show, but the band sounded great and I loved it when their DJ came out to do songs with them. Chino gave the Dallas crowd all sorts of love..from his “I want some of what you got”, to him threatening to jump into the crowd with “Are you gonna catch the fat guy?”, to a shockingly good tease of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” completely rawked out. They played for over an hour and a half and there was never a dull moment. I would say the best moment of the night was during the encore when the opening notes of “Change (In The House of Flies) “ started. That was your moment when band and fans became one and were completely lost in song.
I’m now actually bummed I didn’t get tix for tomorrow’s show. And when they come to SD, they are playing Viejas in Alpine, so none of that happening. Oh well, I’ll always have Dallas....
