Deftones performed “Melanie” live for the first time since 2008 during their ‘Dia de los Deftones’ festival in San Diego, catching fans off guard with the surprise selection. The performance was captured in a fan’s video.
The track comes from Deftones’ album Eros. Fans at the show were not expecting the band to dust off this deep cut from their catalogue.
One fan who attended reacted with shock and enthusiasm to the surprise. “NO WAYYYY!!!! DUDE I wish I was there. That’s insane. I love them so much. That’s actually crazy they played anything from Eros!” the fan wrote.
Another attendee expressed similar surprise at hearing an Eros song live. “I was not expecting them to do another eros song live but I’m so glad they did,” they commented.
A third fan predicted the band would pull something special. “I f*cking knew it! I KNEW they’d pull a surprise song! And what a treat to get Melanie,” they wrote.
The surprise performance took place at Deftones’ ‘Dia de los Deftones’ festival at Petco Park in San Diego. The band’s choice to revive this track delighted fans who had waited over a decade to hear it played on stage.
The “Melanie” performance comes after the unfinished Eros album reportedly leaked online in June 2026, five months before the festival. The leak brought renewed attention to the shelved project and its unreleased material. The band had originally begun performing “Melanie” in 2008 before abandoning plans for the album following a serious car accident involving bassist Chi Cheng in November of that year. Cheng remained in a coma and eventually died in 2013.
Following the tragedy, Deftones decided to shelve Eros and later recruited Sergio Vega, formerly of Quicksand, as their new bassist. The band released Diamond Eyes in 2010 instead and did not perform any Eros material live for 18 years. Deftones had previously played another song from the album, “Smile,” at their festival in 2019.
The November 2026 performance marked only the third documented live performance of “Melanie” ever. The track had not appeared in a Deftones setlist since the two performances in 2008, making this revival a rare moment for fans of the unreleased material.
