The second annual Dia De Los Deftones festival took place last night (November 2) and Chino Moreno and the gang gave fans something special to remember.
- READ MORE: Soundtrack of My Life: Chino Moreno
Taking to the stage at San Diego’s Petco Park, the band added the rare ‘Eros’ track ‘Smile’ to their set list, giving the song its live debut.
‘Eros’ is the album that Deftones were recording at the time their late bassist Chi Cheng was involved in a car crash in 2008. He remained in a semi-comatose state for several years, and so the group decided to shelve the album and start fresh with fill-in bassist Sergio Vega, eventually returning with ‘Diamond Eyes’ in 2010.
Cheng passed away in 2013 and ‘Eros’ has remained unreleased to this day. In 2014, on the one-year anniversary of Cheng’s death, Moreno shared a studio version of ‘Smile’, the only track to ever be liberated from the album.
Performing it live for the first time last night, Moreno told the crowd before playing it: “This one’s for my man, Cheng.”
Watch a clip of the performance below:
Elsewhere on the setlist, the band played a lot of fan favourites and performed ‘Romantic Dreams’ for the first time since their 2013 touring of ‘Koi No Yokan’.
See the full setlist below:
Speaking to NBC 7 San Diego, Moreno said that the band have been working on the follow-up to 2016’s ‘Gore’ for “about a year now.”