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Deftones, Godsmack Release Everything

Godsmack / Deftones
Alpine Valley Music Theater
East Troy,WI
August 18, 2001
Deftones
Chino gets low.

Story and Photos by Terry Mayer

As the ominous thunder clouds started to engulf Alpine Valley Music Theater, a different kind of storm was brewing inside. The stage grew darker than the night sky. A lightning bolt burst forth with great anger as the Deftones took the stage. If only they could bottle this pissed-off burst of mother nature and take it with them on every outdoor tour. They charged forth, not with a drizzle, but with a downpour of metallic rage.
On "Around the Fur" Chino gripped his mike and fell to the stage like a limp rag doll dropped and forgotten by a pouting 4 year old girl as this subtle sacrifice sparked the band to beg for forgiveness. Chino reached for the crowd looking for approval, begging for acceptance. His one hand grabbing at his pants hoping to stop the slow progression before they finally descended nearly to his thighs by the end of the show.Godsmack He left his voice on the altar to exorcise his pain on "Engine #9." Forget about his recent vocal chord injuries that had canceled some of the groups earlier tour dates. The Deftones' raw emotion reached the mud covered mosh pit like a dying man's last 911 call. With the recent release of their third album White Pony and previous albums Around the Fur and Adrenaline the Deftones are fast becoming a band whose future could be very bright.
Since their last appearance at Alpine Valley, when they were with Ozzfest, Godsmack came with a new set design, a medieval castle backdrop with fire spewing forth from it's lookout towers and gargoyles icily glaring at the audience. Godsmack burst forth with the intensity of a mangled car wreck. Every time a security guard held one person back four more where their to take his or her place. With their new album Awake they treated their starved fans to the hell's my home "Bad Magick." Their fire and brimstone set only helped accentuate their special brand of hardcore music. Sully was intensely focused on his biting and scratching vocals as his neck veins were about to pop to freedom.
"Keep Away" and "Voodoo" had all the trappings of a murder gone bad, but the band brought it back from the brink with power chords and beats that would scare the pants off of the most dedicated death metaler. Godsmack, while not as creative or as original as The Deftones, surely left their bootprint in the minds of the swaying heads still wanting more.

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