The Deftones, in one form or another, have been making music since the late ’80s, but they’d maintained a pretty low profile for a decade until returning with this year’s better-than-expected Gore. The success of the album meant the band was back on the festival circuit, which is pretty cool. But what’s even cooler was the news that Chino Moreno, the band’s ever-present frontman, would be playing in a goddamn volcano.
The performance, which was a part of Iceland’s Secret Solstice festival, was announced a while ago, but it went down just last night. The singer performed a solo set for 20 lucky people who were willing to pay roughly $1970 to travel into the pit of a geographically unique set space, which at some point was referred to as an “underground cathedral.” Oh, they also had to walk two-and-a-half miles to the volcano, and then take an elevator nearly 400 feet into the shaft of the volcano, as reported by the BBC.
The BBC also reports that Snorri Helgason, the Icelandic singer-songwriter who opened the set, was much better prepared than Moreno, explaining during his performance that the depth and chill of the volcanic chamber would affect the sound of his guitar and his harmonica, and he adjusted for that. Moreno, on the other hand, performed as he normally would have, and so was off-key. The BBC writer said this: “I’ll have to admit, his set was a bit disappointing.”
Some people are just never impressed.
Watch some footage of the show below, courtesy of the beautiful world of social media, which cannot be snuffed out, even from within a volcano.