††† (Crosses) at the Hammerstein Ballroom

As musical side projects go, ††† (Crosses) originally appeared to be a one-off project. Based in Los Angeles, California, Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez collaborated as ††† in 2011 and released two EPs before debuting an album in 2014. After the initial splash, the band remained relatively dormant for six years as the musicians returned to their main gigs.

Launching a hint of a resurgence, ††† sporadically released random songs from 2020 to 2022. Nearly 10 years after the release of the debut album, the duo followed with a sophomore album, Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete., on October 13, 2023. ††† then took the project seriously enough to embark on its first tour in a decade, locally visiting the Hall at Elsewhere this past November and now hitting the larger Hammerstein Ballroom.

The Familiar World Tour is quite the deliberate stage show. A trio of luminescent crosses dominated the backdrop along with six LED screens that showed kinetic images and film clips. The staging featured a back platform for Lopez and this synthesizers along with three front risers for Moreno.

Following a set by DJ Crook (Los Angeles-based turntablist John Molina, aka CrookOne, who previously worked with Moreno in Team Sleep), the house lights dimmed, the stage backdrops lit and ††† began a nearly two-hour set comprised of old and new songs. Moreno and Lopez performed alone, augmented by backing tracks. Moreno paced the stage incessantly from corner to corner, while Lopez for the most part stood by either of two banks of midi keyboards in back, occasionally coming forward to the edge of the stage with his electric guitar.

Unlike his work with Deftones, Moreno’s vocals were more subdued, although he punctuated some of the songs with hair-raising hollers. Meanwhile, Lopez added stinging synth and guitar leads to his layers of soundscapes for a gothic, industrial and darkwave sound. The few times he moved to the front of the stage, his guitar leads sheared through the canvas of the soundscapes he left playing on his synthesizers behind him. Moreno and Lopez intensified the music by seguing from smooth atmospheric to brutally heavy sounds. The effect was spellbinding.

For the majority of the set, the two figures on stage were backlit as silhouettes. Rarely were either Moreno or Lopez illuminated by overhead lighting and directly visible. While it made for an ominous stylistic artistry that matched the haunting grimness of the music, the bottom line was that the audience was not clearly seeing more than ghost-like silhouettes against an unnecessarily bright light show on the back screens.

Ultimately, the †††’s performance was very promising as a main act, and more than a side project. The music built on captivating electronic rock dynamics. The recurring problem, however, was that the music boomed too loudly for much of the show, thus losing layers of texture and making Moreno’s lyrics largely undecipherable.

Setlist

1. Invisible Hand

2. †his Is a †rick

3. Ghost Ride

4. Pleasure

5. Initiation

6. Vivien

7. Eraser

8. Holier

9. Sensation

10. Protection

11. Girls Float † Boys Cry

12. Fron†iers

13. †he Epilogue

14. †hholyghs†

15. Bi†ches Brew

16. Big Youth

17. End Youth (Reprise)

Encore:

1. †elepa†hy

2. Op†ion

***

The Manhattan Beat reports on New York City's live music circuit. All articles are written by Everynight Charley Crespo. All photographs are taken by Everynight Charley Crespo, except when noted otherwise.

For a list of Manhattan venues that are presenting live music regularly, swing the desktop cursor to the right of the The Manhattan Beat home page and click on the pop-up tab "Where to Find Live Music."

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