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Part of MTV's Music in High Places series of location performances, Deftones: Live in Hawaii features the Sacramento nu-metal grungemeisters in largely acoustic mode on Hawaii's Big Island. The idea of the series is to combine travelogue with "unplugged" performance, although this episode is interspersed with full electric treatments of Deftones songs. The travelogue element of the show is very fine, considering the relatively low-tech cinematography. We see whales leaping from the evening ocean, volcanic steam tumbling at speed over vertiginous clifftops, turtles paddling through crystal clear water, molten lava slithering across quasi-lunar landscapes. Unfortunately, the members of Deftones come over a bit Beavis & Butt-head in the face of all of this natural beauty ("A whole lot of lava, man, it was really cool"). The very presence of these plump, goateed, combat-trousered nu metallurgists feels like a sort of desecration of the spirituality of Hawaii. That said, their acoustic performances of songs like "Knife Party" and "Digital Bath" feel much stronger and soulful than the disappointingly generic electric versions. So maybe some Hawaiian atmosphere did rub off after all. --David Stubbs
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