Last year, I had the chance to watch Deftones perform at HMV Forum. This was my first time seeing the band play live, a band I’ve been listening to since 2000, the year I started to listen to nothing but rock. It was one of the best gigs I was able to see last year but sadly, I was not able to blog about it since we moved house.

A month ago, during a time when I was already quite broke, an announcement came in that Deftones would be playing an intimate secret gig in London in support of their new album Diamond Eyes. When the tickets were released, I grabbed my credit card and purchased a ticket right away which was bundled with the new album in MP3 format. There was no way I would have missed this gig.

The queue and wait outside ULU (University of London Union) was quite long and the weather was in the middle of a cold snap. Eventually, we got inside. No sign of any support bands and no merch for sale either.

At 8:30, Deftones came up on stage and the crowd went wild right away kicking off with Rocket Skates followed by Diamond Eyes, two songs released from their new album. With the venue being relatively small and the crowd mostly dedicated fans, there was a lot of singing, screaming and moshing happening.

Then they went old school with tracks from White Pony with Feiticiera, Elite, Knife Party, and Passenger. I think I almost cried in joy when they started playing Knife Party as it is one of my favourite songs from White Pony and was followed by another favourite, Passenger. Go get your knife!

As with most gigs, the exact setlist is a bit hazy now especially after a week with other gigs happening in between. So I am pulling the setlist off Setlist.fm yet again.

• Rocket Skates
• Diamond Eyes
• Feiticeira
• Elite
• Knife Party
• Passenger
• CMND/CTRL
• You’ve Seen The Butcher
• Sextape
• When Girls Telephone Boys
• Minerva
• Birthmark
• Beauty School
• Prince
• Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
• Around The Fur
• Lotion
• My Own Summer (Shove It)
• Back To School (Mini Maggit)
• Change (In The House Of Flies)
• Root (encore)
• 7 Words (encore)

22 songs in total with a lot of their greatest hits played. The new songs sounded good live but the old ones hit a special place inside me, especially the ones which I’ve only heard live for the first time.

Also, throughout the gig, chants of “Chi Cheng” echoed the venue, the bassist of Deftones who was involved in a car accident back in 2008 and has been in a coma ever since. This was acknowledged by Chino.

The ULU gig was the most intense gig I’ve been to since moving back to London. After the gig, several parts of my body were aching. I’d say bruising but due to my skin colour, it wasn’t that distinct but hurt when you touched those places.

Regardless of the physical pain sustained at this gig, I left with a big grin on my face. That is, until I realized I had work the next day.