Touring across the country to support their new album, Saturday Night Wrist, Southern California metal act the Deftones showed up at the Rialto Theatre Monday to a packed house.

The crowded floor consisted of everyone from couples who were too young to drive a car to a group of friends who looked like they were old enough to buy a six-pack when the Deftones released their first album in ’94.

Opener Deadsy took to the stage in an energetic yet generic set. The band’s brooding image of black armbands, dark suits and multicolored, reversed hair cuts was overshadowed (literally) by the nearly comical amount of fog machine-induced haze that hovered around them for nearly the entire 30-minute set. It was dangerously close to a Spinal Tap moment: loud, nonthreatening electro-metal coming from what appeared to be a purple rain cloud on the stage.

Maybe it was all purposefully done by the band’s members, so they wouldn’t notice the glow of dozens of cell phones as uninterested fans killed time by texting their absent friends: D00D, this b4nd is teh suXorz!

Deadsy played its final song, and a quick 20 minutes later, after a few false starts from the lights, which seemed to only dim one at a time, Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter wandered onstage to explosive applause. A few moments later, the rest of the band emerged from the dark and wasted no time diving into the mosh pit-friendly “”Feiticeira.””

A note of caution to those who are considering ever seeing the Deftones in concert: If you’re the type that likes to stand back and enjoy your live music from afar while sipping on your favorite imported beer, forget about it. The Deftones are not a bunch of shoegazers, and neither are their fans. Be prepared to get sweaty and pushed around like you’re at a Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

That’s not to say that the fans were inconsiderate. The mosh pit, though big, was pretty self-contained, and those who wanted to steer clear of it didn’t have to try too hard. They just had to deal with the swaying mass of bodies that comes with the territory of any good rock show. The band played with as much intensity as the fans, slugging through all the hits, like “”Be Quiet and Drive”” and “”My Own Summer”” as well as a few underappreciated tracks, particularly “”Root.””

All of the band’s five albums were represented throughout the night, with a little less than half of the set devoted to the first two albums.

The accompanying light show was well done, never trying to outdo the people onstage, but rather accentuating their performance, like when singer Chino Moreno stood atop a platform at centerstage near the crowd, with a white light shining upwards from underneath like he was telling some psychotic campfire tale.

Peppering the 18-song set with more recent, ambient tracks like “”Digital Bath”” gave the crowd a chance to calm down and take in the excellent atmosphere this band is capable of creating, although even the slower songs didn’t stop some of the more riled-up fans from thrashing about anyway.

Dividing the set in two and providing the highlight of the night was an excellent cover of The Cure’s “”If Only Tonight We Could Sleep,”” which the band included on a B-Sides and Rarities album released last year. The quiet yet menacing first half of the song displayed how the Deftones could keep your attention without destroying your eardrums.

Although the majority of the credit to how well the band sounded goes to the band itself, there is still something to be said about the venue. Every show at the Rialto sounds great, whether it’s the progressive folk anthems of The Decemberists, the catchy piano melodies of Regina Spektor or the distorted, open chords of metal acts like the Deftones.

There was a slight intermission/guitar interlude with everyone except Carpenter exiting the stage, while he remained to lull the crowd into a trance with steady guitar ambience. The show picked right back up again as the rest of the band soon returned to jump right into crowd favorite “”Passenger,”” which sounded amazing, with Chino singing the lyrics that Maynard James Keenan of Tool provided on the album version.

The night was capped by the hard-hitting “”7 Words”” off the Deftones’ debut album, Adrenaline, an ode to the fans who had been with the band from the beginning of its 12-year journey. It was the perfect send-off to a fantastic display of musical experience and ability.