Finding salvation with Crosses at The Chapel

The musical group ✝️✝️✝️ (Crosses) is rightfully named, because Tuesday night’s show was a religious experience. It felt like the stars aligned perfectly for me to be there—the last time they toured was nearly a decade ago, not to mention they had initially booked only one show at The Chapel before adding a second night due to immense demand. Crosses is the creative conception of Chino Moreno, the frontman of nu-metal group Deftones, and Shaun Lopez, founding member and guitarist for post-hardcore group Far. In earlier interviews, Moreno remarked that the two have been friends since their late teens after growing up in Sacramento and playing in musical groups. Crosses emerged from their hiatus to tour their beautiful new album, Goodnight, God Bless, I Love You, Delete (2023). They have had a cultural renaissance in recent years, as this latest album release was preceded by the PERMANENT.RADIANT EP (2022) and two singles in the same year.

Their set started with “Invisible Hand,” a stand-out track that instantly electrified the room. Everyone was starstruck by Moreno’s vocals, but Lopez’s mastery of the keyboard and guitar brought the track to life. The stage lights flashed to the beat of the guitar riff; these visuals were incredible. Another highlight of the set was their performance of “Pleasure.” It’s a spooky, indulgent, delicious track complete with perfectly timed screams and synths. It seemed as if Moreno and Lopez wrote and produced these after joining a coven. “Initiation” has the same sentiment—it features melodramatic and chromatic piano chords that reminded me of a funeral requiem. The track also has killer guitar riffs from Lopez and powerful screams and belts from Moreno. The whole crowd headbanged to this one!

Soon after, they played “Cadavre Exquis,” with catchy percussion that made everyone dance along. It’s important to mention that the duo had incredible stage presence throughout their set. Moreno traversed the entire stage and sang endearingly to the fans in the front row. You could see how they labored over these songs—the sweat dripped from their brows as they played. Near the end of their set, Moreno and Lopez performed “Bitches Brew,” a favorite song of mine for many years. It is hard to describe the atmosphere during this song, but the sound waves from the guitar reverberated through my entire body. The audience held onto every note and the track climaxed with Moreno screaming “say something, pray for something.” I felt the entire venue shake as the lights pulsed black and white. The song tells a narrative about a person devolving and transforming into an otherworldly beast, and the audience’s energy rose to that potential.

They closed out with “Option,” a track from their self-titled album Crosses (2014). The percussion and chord progressions on the piano were reminiscent of Koi No Yokan (2012), an experimental Deftones album. “Option” was very clearly a crowd favorite, as everyone belted and swayed along. All of my teenage girl hopes and dreams were fulfilled by getting a high-five from Moreno during the performance and a guitar pick from Lopez as they were leaving the stage. Small venues are superior! I beat out a belligerent, drunk old man for the pick, but I don’t feel too bad about it—he bothered me and surrounding fans for a good chunk of the performance.

Anyone who knows me personally knows how near and dear to my heart Deftones is, so naturally I came across Moreno’s side projects like Team Sleep, Palms, and Crosses along the way. Despite discovering this group through Deftones, Crosses is a wonderfully distinct creative project. After previously seeing Moreno perform at Sick New World, a huge annual metal music festival in Las Vegas, I was delighted to see him perform with Crosses in such an intimate venue. If anything, this performance cemented Crosses in my brain as a duo that will always skirt the constraints of genres and labels while also separating itself from other musical projects by Lopez and Moreno. When a friend asked me to describe what kind of music Crosses made, I was a bit at a loss for words. Witch-House? Goth electropop with small metal elements? Sleazegaze (I think I coined this one)? There is no definitive answer, but whatever the hell it is, I’m forever hooked.