The Stone Pony is a venue in New Jersey which my friend Doug and I have always heard about but never went to. As fans of their material since their 2000 album “White Pony,” when we saw that Deftones were playing, we decided to finally check the place out.

After being stuck in traffic due to a man climbing Trump Tower with suction cups we got to the venue. This was specifically the venues outdoor stage which is only open for the summer. The “Summer Stage” as it’s called looked like it would be used for a festival (it even had a bar and food vendors that had more than just popcorn and crappy hot dogs). We met up with Doug’s friend/new Alternative Nation writer Dylan, his girlfriend Christine and our old friend April.

Refused

Due to the traffic we missed most of the first band, Spotlights. Though they seemed alright I was just glad I was able to catch Refused.  I’ve been a fan of these Swedish punks since I first heard them on Fuse back in the day while Doug was curious about them due to their involvement in the new Doom game.

Refused opened up with a newer track and from the moment he started we knew this was going to be a good performance. Their singer, Dennis Lyxzén did all kinds of over the top antics such as weird dance moves, running into the crowd screaming and Refused even covered the intro to Slayer’s “Raining Blood” with him making poses to the riffs (not making this up). They ended their set with their most well-known song “New Noise,” which brought on intense circle pits.

Deftones

After Refused finished Deftones were on. They started with “Rocket Skates” which was a good choice as it got the crowd going, with Deftones’ diverse audience being made up of bros, metalheads and even hipsters. They played a few tracks off the new album “Gore” as well as older greats like “Digital Bath,””Knife Party,” “The Passenger” and “Diamond Eyes.”

They sounded great and the whole performance had a distinct atmosphere felt nowhere else. The band didn’t touch their nu-metal stuff until the last few songs which vocalist Chino Moreno decided to wear a plain white t-shirt for. Though I don’t like those tracks, it was fun to see people go crazy for them. After the show we said goodbye to our friends and headed back to the Hudson Valley to return to real life.