One thing I miss about commercial record stores going the way of the dinosaur are the in-store performances. And because I'm ancient, I actually remember this infamous date in Deftones history back in 1996, when an in-store performance at a Philadelphia HMV record store nearly brought the place into collapse four songs in, prompting the store manager to cut the gig short.
"I was there," YouTuber Scobie Mooney commented about the footage seen above shot by Steve Terrey. "It was absolutely amazing, set was cut short because the store was being ripped apart, haha. They stayed and signed autographs for everyone afterwards. What an amazing day!!!"
After four tracks, a store employee took the microphone from vocalist Chino Moreno and announced to the crowd "Guys, you're getting way out of hand. The show's over," by which he was met with a very large chorus of "Fuck you!" from the crowd.
Moreno, slightly bemused, then tells the crowd, "Hey, we're very sorry man, it's not our fault, you know what I'm saying." From Terrey's video, it's a little difficult to see what's actually happening in the crowd, but after being berated by hundreds of metal maniacs, the store manager strikes a bargain with the crowd, allowing the band to return for one song, on one condition: "no body-surfing" and "no jumping off the browsers" (those are album racks, for those of you who never saw a record store in the 90s.)
"Be good to each other, alright?" he pleads. "One song, that's it. You don't need to be hurting [people] in front of you. Okay? Can I hear it? No body-surfing! No jumping at each other! Don't fuck this place up."
Upon reflection, I think about how I, the ancient specimen that I am, remember this incident more than 25 years later—despite not actually being there—considering it was an era void of cell phones, social media, or any kind of that stuff. How I found out: maybe a 'zine, or maybe it was a 20 second blurb on MTV News. Who knows? Point is, I'm grateful for these little accidental artifacts that we unearth decades later. Enjoy the madness just above!
