Story and Photos: Spencer Fleming
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Now back to the story.....
The Slowdown was shaking Monday night (10/10) as Kentucky's Knocked Loose took over the front room. Opening the show was the local band Trucha and Too Pure To Die from Des Moines. This was my fourth time seeing Knocked Loose and it was by far their best performance yet.
Opening the show was local rock band Trucha. In true hardcore fashion the only thing I could find about the group was their bandcamp page that has four songs. "I only like the demos", haha. They did a good job setting the stage for what was to come. They got the crowd moving and the circle pit started early. Even the overzealous karate kid from the Spite show got in on the action. Ten seconds into the first song he jumps off the stage into an unsuspecting first row and kicks someone in the face. Again, read the room karate kid.
After Trucha came Too Pure to Die out of Des Moines. Talk about a support band, these guys freaking ruled! If I hadn't known they came up from Des Moines before seeing their set you could've easily convinced me that they were opening for the whole tour. Their fast-paced hardcore jams had the crowd going insane. The level of energy was through the roof! People were jumping off the stage, moshing side to side, and crowd surfing everywhere. Local punk rocker Spike took the record for longest crowd surf, going from the stage all the way back to the steps going down to the floor. Somebody get spike a gold medal!
I really enjoyed how the band's vocals were super heavy but halfway coherent. I was bopping along thinking "They should play a Hatebreed song". A few songs later they did a cover from Hatebreed's first release Under The Knife! I can't recall the exact song but needless to say it absolutely crushed. I hope these guys make the trek through Omaha again soon. You can check out Too Pure To Die on Facebook and All Music.
Full gallery for Too Pure to Die at the bottom.
As the lights went down a Soundcloud hip hop song came over the speakers. To my surprise the mosh pit started going off! It's cool to see the line between rock and hip-hop culture starting to blur. Kids just want to let loose and have fun no matter the genre.
Knocked Loose stepped forth with so much raw power the walls were shaking! I saw Knocked Loose at Knotfest IA last year but before that I caught them at the Waiting Room. When I saw them at the Waiting Room there was no stage production whatsoever. This time they had a crazy set of lights that blasted the crowd with strobes, a huge banner, and some gravestone stage props. Everything on stage looked really slick but it was really tough to shoot. I did my best to cycle through dark and light and capture snaps in between the flashes.
A few songs in Bryan Garris addressed the crowd "What's up Omaha? We're so happy to be here. We've been coming to Omaha a long time and I think it's safe to say this is our best show we've ever played here". I can easily say the same. Knocked Loose has seen tremendous growth over the last few years getting support slots for some huge tours like Code Orange, $uicide Boys, and Bring Me The Horizon. The band's headline tours have been consistently selling out mid-size clubs night after night. The band tore through a career spanning set covering material from all of their full albums and their latest E.P. A Tear In The Fabric Of Life.
About halfway through the set Bryan told the crowd "We want to keep the energy up all night. A lot of shows peak right here and start to go down. We want to keep the level up and even take it up another notch at the end". Throughout the set Bryan and Isaac were the pit commanders, shaking things up between every song. Isaac instructed the room saying "Everybody down here better move. No one should be standing still. Push the person next to you, let's go!". Not since the Code Orange show had I seen a more ferocious pit. I did my best to capture everyone jumping off the stage and flying over the crowd. I'm so glad I was perched in the back and not getting kicked in the face (looking at you karate kid).
With just a few songs left Bryan told the crowd "All right, we're doing good so far, the energy is still up let's keep this going". As the band kicked into "Counting Worms" the room lit up like wildfire. Apparently there was a TikTok trend that featured this song? I'm aware of TikTok but this never came across my "ForYou" page. In an interview with the Downbeat Podcast Isaac mentioned that he doesn't care if people are exposed to the band through TikTok. "Whatever brings people to shows and introduces them to new music is fine by me". I totally agree. It's hard to say if there were actually fans there only because of the TikTok trend, but hopefully they walked away with their minds blown like I did. Knocked Loose is on an incredible win streak and I hope that continues for them. This was one of the best shows of the year for me and I can't wait to do it again the next time Knocked Loose comes through!
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Knocked Loose
Too Pure to Die
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