Deftones gain younger fans and feel youthful too

THE BAND'S RENAISSANCE INCLUDES LIVING HEALTHIER, RECORDING AND RELEASING 'PRIVATE MUSIC' AND GETTING BACK OUT ON THE ROAD

- DANIEL KOHN

DEFTONES have a new album and are back on tour.

NEARLY 40 YEARS into Deftones' career, the Sacramento-bred band are anything but a legacy act. As proved by the visceral allegiance from countless fans half their age thrashing at their feet as they perform on stage, the band continues to be as explosive as they were when they conquered the Warped Tour in the late '90s. The band's late-era surge in popularity with generations of fans who missed their first (and second) go-round inspires and surprises them. "It does freak me out when I sit back and, in retrospect, think about it," Chino Moreno says of Deftones' longevity. Sitting backstage in a Victoria, Canada, arena during a break from the band's pre-tour rehearsal, which recently kicked off in Vancouver, Moreno, 52, is relaxed as he discusses their place in the hard rock landscape. Since roughly 2022, the singer has noticed that the crowds at some of the band's meet and greets were younger. In some cases, fans in their teens and early 20s were introducing their parents to the band's catalog, including their turn-of-the-century classic, "White Pony." That stature has only grown as elements of Deftones' amorphously aggressive sound, which includes post-hardcore, trip hop and, most relevant to their revival, shoegaze, have attracted a much younger audience. They've broken out from being a cult and critical favorite from the nü-metal scene to being widely appreciated as one of the most important and influential bands of that era.