Live Review: Deftones – The Piece Hall, Halifax
24th June 2025
Support: High Vis
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Frank Ralph, Desh Kapur, Ellis Robinson & Alex Brown
Dating back to the late-eighteenth century, the Grade 1 listed Piece Hall in Halifax was originally built to attract merchants and commerce through the trading of woollen garments. The building continued to be used as a hub for buying and selling up until the early nineteen-seventies, when its maintenance became too costly to continue.
Barely saved from demolition in 1976, the venue finally found funding and was redeveloped into a music venue, hosting its first event in 2014 – although sequences from the 1996 film, Brassed Off were filmed there, so make of that what you will.
This year’s Live at the Piece Hall events include the likes of Extreme and The Smashing Pumpkins alongside a myriad of other artists from all manner of musical spheres.
But tonight, making a long overdue return to a British stage is Sacramento, California’s Deftones, whose absence stretches back to their Download appearance more than three years ago. This is the ‘tones’ first of four big gigs in Blighty, heading off to the Eden Project, Glastonbury and Crystal Palance after tonight, the band seem to have developed a liking for a more aesthetically pleasing surrounding.
The arena is healthily full for support band, High Vis, who’ve been active since back in the second half of the last decade and bound onto the Piece Hall’s outdoor stage under gloriously bright and blue West Yorkshire skies. The sound is clear for opener, Talk For Hours, the bass thunders as clean guitars emit a more alternative sound. The punk energy of Riskee & The Ridicule is there for all to see during Altitude, and it’s clear that the band are chuffed to bits to be sharing Deftones’ stage tonight.
Drop Me Out, from the band’s most recent album, Guided Tour, is accessible and catchy and comes with the presence of a signer, positioned at the side of the stage, making communication more available to those with hearing difficulties. 0151 is dedicated to all the Scousers in the audience; a call for people to be more kind and for more understanding between folk forms the intro to Out Cold, while another newbie, Farringdon, has a distinct sound of The Bronx.
The band’s message is one of peace and positivity, all wrapped up and a hard and abrasive punk package. There’s even some electronic sounds on going, but High Vis are here to break the rules and get the blood pumping for tonight’s headliners. Ominously, as the band leave the stage one cannot help but notice the blue, cloudless skies have taken a decidedly more grey tone and seem to be growing darker by the minute.
Still, the BBC Weather interweb page said it was going to be a dry evening in Halifax, so there’s no concern needed. Except, the BBC Weather interweb page is gravely mistaken – the big fibber - and, just as Deftones take to the stage and fire into a full-blooded audio and visual experience of Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) the heavens open, blasting the open-air Piece Hall with a deluge.
In a strange way, the rain adds to the sharp lighting, giving the whole thing an added otherworldliness, though it doesn’t take too long before I’m wet as an otter’s pocket and neither the pad nor the pen is willing to work in these conditions.
There’s an irony when the band play My Own Summer (Shove It) from the breakout record, Around the Fur, a track that clearly has a special place in the hearts of many people here tonight; the way the chorus is shouted back to the stage suggests the fire still burns deep within these one-time wearers of enormously baggy jeans.
The title track of the Diamond Eyes album brings the beginning of the set forward in time and Swerve City gives everyone a change to ignore the rain and jump around like idiots for three minutes, while White Pony’s Feiticeira reminds us that Deftones were way ahead of their contemporaries back in the hey-day of the Nu Metal boom.
nThe rain does not look like abating at any stage, leading Chino to suggest: a little wet is good. The arty and emotive Digital Bath, a wholly appropriate Tempest and a grungy You’ve Seen the Butcher pack the middle of the set with short, sharp gut-punches.
Long-time drummer, Abe Cunningham keeps everything ticking over perfectly, complimented by bassist, Fred Sablan, whose low end is both felt and heard, but also adds extra sorrow to an emotionally charged Sextape’s wistful vocals.
It’s a trip back to Around the Fur again for the title tune and Headup, allowing for another nostalgia trip, before rolling out what is, in my opinion, one of Deftones’ best songs: Rosamary, from the undisputed classic Koi No Yokan. Accompanied by full use of the stage’s simple lights, it’s a tune that devastates on any occasion; through this PA, it’s an awesome experience that means the rain is barely more than an afterthought.
The spire of the neighbouring church can be seen to be illuminated, giving an additional level of atmosphere to Hole in the Earth and the set closer, Genesis. Between those tracks sits the Kafka-esque Change (In the House of Flies) which finds a guitar-slinging Chino as Halifax’s Master of Ceremonies, conducting his sold-out choir.
Encore of Minerva, from the much-maligned 2003 self-titled, plays to Deftones’ strengths, while the closing duo of Bored and the potty-mouthed 7 Words from the now-thirty-year-old Adrenaline debut, bringing the evening to an end.
All the band’s albums, barring 2016’s troublesome Gore get dusted off, showing the development of Deftones from the naïve young upstarts they were to one of the most important bands of their generation. They are one of the rare bands who you try to categorise at your own risk for, like trying to plat smoke or herd cats, such an endeavour is pure folly.
Deftones are unique, in their sound and their approach and, under the rainy skies of Halifax’s wonderful Piece Hall, they prove themselves to be untouchable in what they do.
Oh, and I’m still not dry yet. Damn you, BBC Weather!!!
Photo Credits:
-> Header Image: Frank Ralph
-> Images 1 and 2: Desh Kapur
-> Image 3: Ellis Robinson
-> Image 4: Alex Brown
