Black stripes and laddered tights gathered en masse at Boondall’s own rock colosseum, the Brisbane Entertainment Centre to witness Deftones’ anticipated return to Magandjin (Brisbane) on their first headline tour in over a decade. Joined by New York indie rock veterans Interpol and Naarm’s (Melbourne) own alt-rock shapeshifter Ecca Vandal, the night delivered anunlikely collision of three generations of rock & roll - for an ever-growing coalition of teenage fanatics.

Ecca Vandal. Photo credit: Glenn Pokorny

It is no easy feat in a line-up like this for an opening act to feel like more than a prelude to the alt-rock giants to follow, but Vandal wasted no time to demonstrate exactly why she was given the spot. Showered in strobing red lights, the band launched into a chest-thumping set. The kick drum rattled almost painfully through the room. Though modest in size, the three-piece filled the cavernous stage with confident ease. Tracks BLEED BUT NEVER DIE and CRUISING THE SELF SOOTHE tuned well into the rock undercurrents of the night.

Vandal teased her versatility on the more beat-heavy electronic track THEN THERE’S ONE, boasting wonderfully smooth vocals - a welcome deviation from her belts in heavier tracks. Taking a firm grip on the building energy in the room, Vandal made sure to commandeer the audience, raising their hands and provoking head-bangs in response. Upon her first return to Magandjin in over 7 years, Ecca Vandal undoubtedly departed with a cohort of new fans.

Interpol then graced the stage as suit-clad silhouettes. Vocalist Paul Banks glanced at the audience through black-framed Ray-Bans, whilst guitarist Daniel Kessler wasted not a second before jumping into the bright, sliding opening riff to their 2014 hit All The Rage Back Home. Banks’ trademark vibrato was initially dwarfed rather violently by the instrumentals, the kick drum blaring through the live mix, but settled quickly as they continued.

As anticipating fans continued to pour in, I began to gather quite the volume of empirical evidence to support my theory about this particular lineup being somewhat bizarre. Though Interpol are one of the most defining bands of the 2000s post-punk era, the audience stood anchored and rather quiet, indicating to me that the Venn diagram of Deftones and Interpol contained quite a small group in its overlap. However, the silence from attendees felt driven more by intrigue than boredom, with the crowd warming steadily as the set continued.

For the fans of Interpol, the setlist was a compilation of highlights from their 25-year career. Evil, from album Antics, followed All The Rage Back Home, with Brad Truax’s bass driving the song heroically. Roland and Obstacle 1 from their most acclaimed album Turn On The Bright Lightssounded almost uncanny to the studio recordings. Kessler lurched across the stage while his guitar ripped through the audience during Obstacle 1, stage lights strobed red and white, synced to the rhythm. Wings On Fire, a taste of their much-anticipated 2026 release sandwiched itself in the middle, delayed by some short-lived technical difficulties for Kessler, before the band closed with a uniquely loud rendition of PDA. Banks beckoned “Sleep tight, grim rite,” to the audience. The instrumentals carried climactically through the last chorus.

As the last guitar line rang out, the band were quick to hop offstage. A few thank-yous were offered, along with a wave goodbye before the stage faded to black. The anticipation for what was to follow became palpable.

The iconic opening riff to Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) pierced through the silence at 9:15 on the dot, reverberating throughout the entertainment centre. The audience screamed in response, collectively losing their minds as drummer Abe Cunningham hammered the crash. Lead singer Chino Moreno erupted onto the stage, sprinting and hurdling left to right, lassoing his microphone through the air. The track was the perfect opener for a crowd that had anticipated this very moment for years. Reverberated yells and hollers filled in the gaps between Moreno’s soft vocals and guitarist Stephen Carpenters’ down-tuned strums. Moreno’s vocal power was left unaffected by his stage antics. His physical presence remained endlessly animated through all 90 minutes Deftones held the stage.

The pulsating, high-energy milk of the madonna followed, a track from their 2025 album private music. The band ensured the energy given to their older material carried into the new songs, making them almost indistinguishable from the rest of the set. An impressive feat for a band who had their last chart peak in 2003.

The set continued without a falter in energy, with a few breaks from the auditory assault for more understated tracks like Mascara and Sextape, leaving space for Morenos’ ghostly vocals to shine atop the thrashing instrumentals. Though I had heard he sounded tired in previous performances, he impressed throughout the night, demonstrating masterful sustain and vocal control, constantly switching seamlessly between screams and breathy melodies.

Pits sprinkled themselves throughout the audience for Change (In the House of Flies). Rising-sun visuals dwarfed the crowd, Moreno stood motionless in the centre, strumming his white Gibson SG — one of the most memorable images of the night. Visuals from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973) flickered behind the band amongst bloodshot eyes, cityscapes and recurring bird motifs. The maximalist stage visuals worked in harmony with the set.

Like Interpol, Moreno kept dialogue between songs to a minimum, pausing a few times to ask for the house lights to illuminate the audience. I had assumed the crowd would have skew older, the reality was the opposite. A large majority of the standing audience were teenagers and fans in their early twenties, with a handful of millennials and Gen Xers peppered throughout.

To encore, Deftones launched into one of their most acclaimed tracks My Own Summer (Shove It) testing the endurance of a crowd seemingly in the throes of one endless head-bang. 7 Words brought a ballistic and cathartic end to the night; chants of “suck!” slowly faded as the tension in the audience released simultaneously. Most concert-goers likely departed the carpark of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre feeling both incredibly satisfied and sore.

Retaining relevancy in music is a battle that every commercial band has to face in a forever expansive and increasingly competitive market. Deftones have not only grabbed hold of their resurgence, but flourish under these new conditions. There is no doubt that this Nu-Metal chameleon will continue to hold onto their name as one of the best in the business.

Photo gallery by Glenn Pokorny.

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