Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez sure like to take their sweet old time dropping new music as ††† (or Crosses as we’ll refer to them from here on out). When it does come though, it doesn’t take long to turn into a flurry of material.
Beginning in 2020, in the wake of radio silence since 2014, a slow trickle of yearly singles was soon developing into a full-blown new album culminating with this past October’s Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. That brings us to Boston’s House of Blues, where Crosses will play tonight (February 19) as part of the Familiar World Tour, their first outing in close to a decade.
The Crosses story started in 2011, when Moreno stepped away from his day job as Deftones frontman and hooked up with a producer, multi-instrumentalist and old friend in Lopez and Chuck Doom. Moreno traded in his screams for synths and embraced an ode to a longtime love of Depeche Mode and The Cure while having had no problem mixing in the odd George Michael cover.
Like now, the 2011 Crosses started slowly with a few EPs becoming building blocks for a full album. Unlike now, Doom is no longer in the fold. His clashes with Lopez on the direction the unit would go in led to a standoff with Moreno making the difficult decision to move forward Doom-free.
That doesn’t mean the now-duo don’t enlist in some help when the opportunity arises to help round out the lushness of their ball bouncing down the basement steps synth-wave. Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. sees contributions from El-P of Run the Jewels and, in a twist that a teen Moreno would never believe, Robert Smith. At the end of the day, Moreno and Lopez claim to have had enough material for a double album, so there could be much more coming from Crosses sooner than usual. And with Deftones likely on the shelf for a bit longer, there’s hardly a better time.
CROSSES :: Monday, February 19 at House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St. in Boston, MA :: 7 p.m., all ages, $39.50 to $62.50 :: Event info and tickets