If this audience was waiting to see a rock star in the making, too late. In fact, way too late. The Deftones’ Chino Moreno is there – way up there.

You may disagree, but talk to his fans. Chino’s there, trust them.

So what we now have is a new addition to an ever growing rock star club dominated by hard rockers like Limp Bizkit’s Durst, Korn’s Davis and Rage's now-estranged lead singer Zack De La Rocha; each with their own degree of style and persona.

Chino, though, is more like a fish out of water. Not that Chino doesn’t embrace those star qualities, quite the contrary actually. But he is magnificently ordinary in appearance but with extraordinary presence and passion, with equally bitter wails that can flood an amphitheater with tremendous velocity.

Warning signs of high decibel levels were posted at the entrance of the venue - that warning was an understatement. Bleeding ears brought out bleeding hearts for Chino.

During the two hour set, Chino embraced his audience and sang most of the two hours nearly on top of his mostly teen-aged fans. He often stood on the rails that were there to protect him from a never developing mosh pit. From a distance, it was like he was kneeling on air, just over the heads of his fans as he delicately reached his hands outward and absorbed the extended limbs while sweetly bellowing, "I watched you change." This, from their latest gold release, White Pony, was an especially poignant part of the version.

But his love was conditional and demanded respect. A fanatical loyalist wanted more than his hand and grabbed his polyester black windbreaker, "Get your fuckin’ hands off me bitch!," he exclaimed, "$9.99 at Wal-Mart, bitch. Get your own!."

For the balance of the show, the Sacramento based quartet banged out highlights of their last three albums against a backdrop of stark white beams of light that sprayed throughout a simulated starlit sky somewhat reminiscent of a Star Wars scene. It gave a somewhat futuristic feel with their familiar logo of the white pony flashing somewhat sublimely in the corner.

"Hey! What’s up to my familia!" was the only Spanglish the notoriously tempered Chino commented for the evening encouraging a tremendous roar of approval from the less than capacity crowd.