Deftones Tour 2026

Inside Deftones

Deftones are the Sacramento alternative metal band who, four decades into a career that started in a high-school garage in the late 1980s, have grown into something almost no other band of their generational wave managed: a heavy act that the heavy world reveres and the indie-rock world quietly admires, a touring institution whose audience spans the original Adrenaline cassette kids and the kids who found White Pony on streaming twenty years after release, and a live unit that still plays like it has something to prove. Chino Moreno's vocal range — the whisper that becomes a scream that becomes a croon, sometimes inside the same bar — remains the signature sound, but the band's identity is the full chemistry: Stephen Carpenter's downtuned eight-string guitar tone, Abe Cunningham's syncopated, almost jazz-leaning drum patterns, Frank Delgado's sample and synth atmospheres washing over the top of the heaviest passages, and the bass chair — held by Chi Cheng through 2008, then by Sergio Vega through 2021, and most recently by Fred Sablan — anchoring the low end while everything else floats.

The touring catalogue runs through Around the Fur's Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) and My Own Summer (Shove It), through White Pony's Change (In the House of Flies) and Knife Prty and Digital Bath, through Diamond Eyes' title track and the deep cuts on Koi No Yokan and Ohms and the new Private Music material, and the live show alternates between full-bore heavy and slow shoegaze atmosphere from one song to the next. Deftones headline arenas in North America, headline festivals across Europe, sell out theatres in Japan and Latin America, and run their own annual destination event — Dia de los Deftones — on the San Diego waterfront.

The band arrives in your city as one of the most respected heavy acts still touring at this scale, and the audience knows it.

About Deftones

Deftones formed in Sacramento, California in 1988 when guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham, and vocalist Chino Moreno started jamming together in their teens. Bassist Chi Cheng joined in 1990 and turntablist/keyboardist Frank Delgado came on board through the mid-1990s, locking the classic lineup in place.

The band built a regional following through the early '90s, signed to Maverick Records in 1994, and released their debut Adrenaline in October 1995 — a raw, hardcore-adjacent record produced by Terry Date that introduced the abrasive guitar tone and the Moreno scream and laid the groundwork for what would become alternative metal's most cinematic discography. Around the Fur followed in October 1997, sharpening the songwriting and producing the band's first crossover singles in Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) and My Own Summer (Shove It), and selling the better part of a million copies in the United States.

The landmark arrived in June 2000: White Pony, the third album, broadened the palette into shoegaze textures, trip-hop atmosphere, and an emotional vulnerability that no other heavy band of the era was attempting. Change (In the House of Flies) became the band's biggest crossover hit; Digital Bath, Knife Prty, and Passenger (the Maynard James Keenan duet) became fan-cultic anchors; Elite won the band their first and to date only Grammy, for Best Metal Performance, at the 2001 ceremony.

White Pony went platinum, made nearly every critic's decade-end list, and is widely regarded as the high-water mark of the entire alternative metal genre. The self-titled Deftones followed in May 2003, leaning aggressive again with Hexagram, Minerva, and Bloody Cape.

Saturday Night Wrist (October 2006) was a famously difficult record to make — Moreno tracking his vocals in separate sessions from the band, Cheng's role contested, the producer changed mid-project — but produced Hole in the Earth and the Annie Hardy duet Pink Cellphone and remains a fan favourite. Tragedy struck in November 2008 when Chi Cheng was injured in a car accident that left him in a minimally conscious state; he passed away in April 2013 after years of family-led recovery efforts.

Sergio Vega, who had previously toured with the band, stepped in on bass and recorded Diamond Eyes (May 2010) — the album the band wrote in the immediate aftermath as a creative response to Cheng's accident. Diamond Eyes was warmly received and produced the title track, Rocket Skates, and Sextape.

Koi No Yokan followed in November 2012, deepening the atmospheric and shoegaze elements through Swerve City, Tempest, and Rosemary. Gore (April 2016) leaned into a brighter, more textural guitar sound with Prayers/Triangles and Doomed User.

Ohms (September 2020) reunited the band with Terry Date as producer for the first time since Around the Fur, returning to a heavier register through Genesis, Ceremony, and the title track. Private Music arrived in 2024 as the ninth studio album, extending the catalogue further.

Sergio Vega exited the band in 2021, with Fred Sablan and other bassists handling subsequent touring duties; the personnel question has been quietly handled rather than turned into a public statement. Across the run Deftones have sold more than ten million albums worldwide, charted four top-ten records on the Billboard 200, and become one of the most-cited influences on every heavy band that has formed in the twenty-five years since White Pony — from Loathe and Spiritbox to half of the modern shoegaze revival.

Deftones tour

Deftones tour as one of alternative metal's reliably active live institutions, running global cycles around each studio release and headlining a deep schedule of arena, theatre, and festival dates between records. The current cycle is built around the band's ninth studio album Private Music alongside the back catalogue, and the routing through 2026 is expected to include a mix of North American arena dates, European festival headline slots, Latin American theatre and arena runs, and Asia-Pacific stops where the schedule allows.

Set lengths typically land in the 90- to 110-minute range across 16 to 20 songs, with the band drawing roughly evenly from White Pony, Around the Fur, Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan, and Ohms, plus three to five songs from the newest record. The production is intentionally restrained for an act of this stature — heavy lighting, smoke and haze, video screens behind the band rather than runway extensions or B-stages — which keeps the focus on the music and on Moreno's interaction with the crowd.

The band run their own annual destination event, Dia de los Deftones, on the San Diego waterfront at Petco Park's Gallagher Square or the Embarcadero Marina Park each November, curating a lineup of heavy and adjacent acts (past editions have featured CHVRCHES, Future, Gojira, Vince Staples, JPEGMAFIA, and others) around a Deftones headline set. Festival headline appearances are a regular feature: Sick New World in Las Vegas, Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Beach, Aftershock in Sacramento, Louder Than Life in Louisville, Hellfest in Clisson, Download in Donington, Resurrection Fest in Spain, Rock am Ring/Rock im Park in Germany, and Knotfest international editions have all booked the band at headline or sub-headline level.

Specific 2026 dates and venues shift as legs are announced; check Ticketmaster, the band's official site at deftones.com, and the Dia de los Deftones festival page for the most current routing.

Deftones tickets

Deftones tickets are sold primarily through Ticketmaster in North America and the UK, AXS for venues operated by AEG, See Tickets and Eventim for European festival and theatre dates, and regional primary partners across Latin America and Asia. Pricing varies sharply by venue type — arena upper tier seats typically run from $50–$80 USD, mid-bowl seats $90–$140, lower bowl and floor pit $180–$280, with VIP packages including early entry, dedicated viewing platforms, and merchandise bundles starting around $300 and climbing to $700 for soundcheck and meet experiences when offered.

Theatre dates run tighter — $75 to $200 general admission floor in most markets — and festival access is typically bundled into the event's general admission and VIP tiers rather than sold per-artist. Fan club presales through deftones.com run for most major on-sales, generally a week ahead of public sale; Ticketmaster Verified Fan registration is in place for a growing share of high-demand North American dates to filter out broker bots.

Secondary market reality for in-demand cities — Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo, Mexico City, São Paulo, the Dia de los Deftones festival itself — is that face value disappears quickly and the cleanest verified resale routes are Ticketmaster Verified Resale and AXS Official Resale, both of which cap resale at face plus fees in most jurisdictions. Avoid generic search-ad ticket sites that surface above the official venue listings; many sell tickets they do not yet hold and price several hundred percent above face.

Apple Wallet and Google Wallet mobile tickets are now standard at most arena and theatre dates — confirm the delivery method in your Ticketmaster account before show day and arrive at the gate with a charged phone.

Deftones setlist — what they play

The Deftones setlist on a typical headline night runs 16 to 20 songs across a 90- to 110-minute set, structured to alternate the heavy passages with the slow atmospheric ones rather than back-loading either. The show usually opens with a heavy aggressive opener — Genesis, Rocket Skates, My Own Summer (Shove It), or Hexagram have all anchored the slot — then runs quickly into a White Pony or Diamond Eyes anchor like Diamond Eyes itself, Digital Bath, or Knife Prty.

The middle of the set typically draws from Around the Fur, Koi No Yokan, and Ohms in some combination — Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), Swerve City, Tempest, Ohms, and Headup or Bored have all rotated through. The slow centrepiece is almost always Sextape or Beauty School or Damone, played with the lighting dropped low and Delgado's samples washing the room before the band kicks back into the heavy.

The back third is the catalogue run every audience came for: Minerva, Bloody Cape, You've Seen the Butcher, Hole in the Earth, Bored, Around the Fur, Knife Prty, Engine No. 9.

The encore almost always closes on Change (In the House of Flies) or 7 Words depending on the night, with 7 Words slotting in when the band wants to send the audience out at full heaviness and Change closing the more atmospheric routings. Night-by-night variation across a Deftones tour is genuinely real — the band rotate 25 to 30 songs across a leg and pull deeper cuts (Mascara, Lhabia, Pink Maggit, Cherry Waves, Risk, Engine No. 9) into the rotation for repeat fans.

Setlist.fm is the most reliable real-time source for confirming exactly what your specific date is playing.

Tour cities