After releasing their new album, “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To”, Knocked Loose began their 21-city tour alongside Militarie Gun, Drain, The Garden, and Danny Brown at KEMBA Live. As much as I would’ve loved a Danny Brown set, The Garden, Drain, and Militarie Gun provided more than enough support for Knocked Loose. And Knocked Loose Knocked the roof Loose at Kemba!
My bad.
My hometown, Canton, OH, has nothing close to Columbus’s music scene. Yeah, Trippie Redd got big, but if your music scene consists mostly of high schoolers imitating shit from a butt, you’re gonna get shit from a butt.
After joining AROUSE and attending some house shows, I was exposed to more and more of what a real music scene looked like. I was told by many people in Columbus’s scene about Knocked Loose and their insane shows. After seeing The Garden And Machine Girl in 2022, I felt psyched for this show.
To kick off the show, Militarie Gun went on and certainly… performed. I have nothing against the band, they played their songs, but the crowd wasn’t theirs. 10% of the crowd had on Deftones tees (they weren’t even there), a good 20% had on jester makeup for The Garden, and the other 70% were tatted up with black band tees and 16-oz gauges. In other words: the crowd was full of freaks! You need to match the freak energy!
I’m tired of every band nowadays coming from LA, dressing in rugby shirts, and playing melodic rock with “edge” or whatever. You sound like christian Turnstile! You’re robotic and bland! Shake some ass, or something! That aside, they were a fine band; this just wasn’t their crowd. Most people there were waiting for Knocked Loose and at least a few were waiting for The Garden.
Drain, on the other hand, introduced themselves with boundless energy and style that made them absolute gems. They were fun, played great, and the singer seemed genuinely happy to be there. A lot of people – myself included – never caught any of the lyrics, but the crowd rode their contagious energy to an electric peak. Bodies moved, pits formed, crowds surfed.
The highlight of their set came with their closer, when the singer asked for 50 people to crowd-surf to the front. A barrage of angsty hardcore dudes and Garden-heads hoisted each other up into the air and threw themselves into the roiling mass in the hope of making it out to sea. Three security guards, unfortunately tasked with handling the waves of people brought to the front, certainly earned their checks. It was chaotic, it was loud, and it was fun.
After Drain, The Garden went on to a slow start. They had some technical issues with their drums, and the crowd felt a little tired after all the physical spectacle of the Drain set. After some quick technical fixes, however, The Garden played a fantastic set. All the jesters with their face paint went crazy and screamed their lungs out. The Garden, living up to their jester identity, performed front flips and tumbles on the stage. Towards the end of the set, the Gen-Z Juggalos opened up circle pits and two-stepped through the crowd.
The Garden mostly played their newer songs, but found the chance to throw in a couple deep cuts like “I See A Moth” and “Grass”. The Garden put on a great set, and certainly lived up to their opening performance two years hence for Machine Girl. The jesters know how to throw a show.
The time came for Knocked Loose’s set. At this point, the crowd was ready to go for Knocked Loose. The entire pit filled with hardcore heads, ready to show the world how they got down.
They went crazy. The stage crew set up a giant mountain for the drummer to perform atop. As the curtain fell, the whole pit started moving with such incredible intensity that the lawn crowd picked up on it, opening pits and throwing elbows. I myself was watching from the lawn at this point, and the sheer amount of people moving around and screaming the lyrics left me in awe.
Knocked Loose controlled the crowd with such ease. Whenever they asked for hands in the air, nearly the entire venue followed along. When they asked for a pit to open, the crowd opened some of the biggest pits I’d ever seen at Kemba.
Throughout the concert, the crowd’s pace never faltered. They kept up for the entire set, and so did Knocked Loose. They started off with “Thirst” to get the crowd ready, and what seemed like the whole venue screamed the lyrics for “Suffocation”. The vocalist, Bryan Garris, grabbed a guitar to shred “Sit & Mourn” alongside the rest of the band. The band performed with incredible skill, and their performance will stay near to my heart for years to come.
Knocked Loose, The Garden, Drain, and Militarie Gun put on a fantastic show at Kemba that evening, and I encourage everyone to check out their music. Knocked Loose threw one of the most fun and crazy shows I’ve been a part of, ever.
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