On February 25th in Portland, Oregon, Deftones kicked off their tour with openers Fleshwater and The Mars Volta. Deftones has been making music since 1995. They’ve made nine studio albums, and their lead singer, Chino Moreno, has lent his voice to many other artists’ songs. Over the years, they’ve been popular, but never enough to warrant the crowds that they are currently drawing. The first two weeks of their tour were completely sold out, and ticket prices for the remainder of their shows are only increasing as demand grows. Since 2024, they’ve been a major part of five different festivals, one being their very own that they hold at Petco Park in San Diego, California.
The Dia De Los Deftones festival is always held in November and celebrates the tradition of the Day of the Dead. They’ve been holding these festivals since 2018. I’ve had the privilege of being a regular attendee at not only their Dia de los Deftones Festival but also a couple of their regular live shows. I began going to the festival when they were relatively small. There were many dedicated and lifelong fans in attendance, including my dad, who has been a fan of them since early 2003. We were able to see them clearly, and the area in which they were playing was fairly small. The next year, however, we were pushed completely against the barricade at the back of the baseball field where they had their stage set up. The crowd had grown exponentially, and last year at the most recent Dia de los Deftones, the field was filled with people spilling into the seats halfway up the stadium.
For the most part, Deftones had never really been that huge of a deal until recently. The most successful album they’ve ever released was White Pony in 2002. They’d been a significant part of the Nu-Metal movement, but had fallen short next to bands such as Korn and Slipknot. They were the type of band with a cult following, and that’s how they got by for many years, until around 2020. They were set to go on tour, but due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 outbreak, their shows became indefinitely postponed. When quarantine was over, they were a much bigger deal than they had ever been before. They’ve continued to grow and are now a part of major festivals and touring arenas around the world. This newfound popularity is because their music has begun to trend on TikTok. This has been the case for many older bands. Someone will post a video using a song from an older artist, and suddenly, that artist will be extremely popular. While this is bothersome to some people who have been lifelong fans, the artists greatly benefit from it and are capable of doing massive tours and making a lot of money.
Deftones is one of the many bands capitalizing on this new movement. They’re welcoming new and old fans and continuing to put on great shows. The fame they’ve gained has pushed them to the top, and they’re now capable of performing with some of the biggest metal acts in the world. Fans eagerly awaited a suspected new album, and new listeners continue to pop up every day. For a band that has become popular due to TikTok popularity, Deftones continues to do increasingly well. Hopefully, as the trends move on, they continue to put out new music and draw the same crowds.
