Crosses ††† converted the non-believers at The Observatory North Park
Crosses, stylized with symbols as †††, played two back-to-back shows at The Observatory North Park in San Diego on the weekend of December 7th and 8th. The side project of Deftones lead signer Chino Moreno and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Lopez of the Sacramento band Far, this electronic leaning, dark, and gritty musical duo incorporates electronic beats, samples, and heavy rock vocals into twisted electronic dreamscapes. Their music meanders from tranquil and melodic verses with sweet falsetto vocal lines, to violently harsh and powerful choruses delivered in singer Chino Moreno’s signature growling vocal style.
At this San Diego show the duo performed on an expansive stage filled with various types of rugged metal ramps and boxes, with a large LED screen and brightly flashing backlights. Singer Chino Moreno, fresh off a recent San Diego performance at the annual Dia De Los Deftones festival, constantly paced and leapt around the tall stage treating it like a giant adult jungle gym, his frantic energy delivered not only in movement but in intensely emotional vocals. Shaun Lopez played keyboards and violently strummed guitar riffs from a custom built station towards the rear of the stage. However he eagerly ran forward during certain sections to jam out guitar solos at the front mirroring Chino’s intense energy.
One seemingly missing component to this fantastic live experience was a proper rhythm section, a drummer and bass player could take this show to a whole other level. However, Crosses is clearly a completely different type of artistic expression than Chino’s main musical project, and probably for a reason. Heading too far into the Deftone’s territory could endanger the unique vibe and flavor of this group. A really distinctive and immediately catchy song in the San Diego set was “Eraser” from the 2023 album Goodnight, Glod Bless, I Love U, Delete, the short song features beautifully haunting vocals and a bouncy electronic beat, it’s clearly a Chino signature vocal but with a different pop influence.
While very active in his performance and vocal style, Moreno made relatively few remarks to the large San Diego crowd at Sunday night’s performance. He checked in mid set with “How’s everyone doing tonight? It’s so nice to see some familiar faces here” “Sunday night and all of us are together, everyone thank you for coming” and later in the evening remarked “As I get older I go to bed earlier and earlier, but not tonight!” Clearly enjoying a two night stand in beautiful San Diego, the band and crew were spotted earlier in the day by fans in North Park near the venue. Here’s hoping this unique musical duo enjoyed their time in America’s finest city, and that Chino continues to bring fantastic performances like this to his fans here in San Diego.
