The Salt Shed isn’t well known for being an old haunt of metal and/or hardcore bands, but that doesn’t mean they don’t partake in the dark arts from time to time. Last Thursday, fresh off the release of one of the most critically acclaimed metal/hardcore albums of the year, Oldham County's Knocked Loose stormed through Salt Shed’s doors with help from their pals in Speed, Show Me The Body, and Loathe and the show went as hard as you might expect. The show taking place in a larger, more spacious venue than your typical metalhead or hardcore kid might expect did not seem to put a damper on any raucous activities, except maybe stage diving; the pits were wild and free, the crowd surfers were sprouting like wildflowers, and requests for two-step dancing were obliged whenever a band made a request.
The night started promptly at 7 with Australian hardcore heavyweights Speed, and they proceeded to put on, in my opinion, the best opening set of the night. It isn’t super rare to see a hardcore vocalist come on stage in a good mood, smiling, hyping the crowd up with motivational speeches that hit you straight in the heart, instantly making you feel like you’re in a safe place anchored to the kindest, most welcoming community in all of heavy music. However, it’s kind of rare to see that from almost every member of the band but that’s just what makes Speed different from your average macho hardcore outfit. They talk of respect, love, and community, and still tear your face off, but they do it with a smile and that is what truly makes the difference.
Every member of the band played with such ferocity and enthusiasm that it bled from the stage to the audience song after song after song. Speaking of songs, I’m not familiar with Speed enough to be able to name all the songs they played live but they did play a few of my favorites, namely “REAL SICK”, “Not That Nice”, and “REAL LIFE LOVE”, a song from their debut record ONLY ONE MODE coming out in July. Their breakdowns were more like beatdowns, their energy onstage was nothing but impressive, and they certainly lived up to their name with almost every song they played having sections so fast it’d make your head spin.
What was really fun about seeing them live was not only seeing multiple band members swapping instruments (including vocals!) but also how they celebrated the hardcore community in whichever city they were performing in. Not only did they have some guest vocals from some (presumably) local Chicago hardcore singers but they also never slept on an opportunity to call out some of their favorite bands from the area, like Hold My Own and Buggin', and encourage everyone in the audience to listen to them which is such a kind, gracious gesture and truly epitomizes the spirit of hardcore music.
Full transparency upfront, I’m not the biggest fan of either Show Me The Body or Loathe so I can’t speak much to how well they played their material, if last Thursday was an off-night for either of them, or if they even should have been on this tour supporting Knocked Loose in the first place. However, I can speak to how much more I enjoyed these bands live than I did listening to their songs on record pre-show. I’ve never heard a Show Me The Body song I liked much but they are, without a doubt, one of my favorite bands to see live that I don’t enjoy listening to outside of a live setting. Lead singer Julian Pratt is one of the most intimidating frontmen to witness live in the flesh and the other two members aren’t rays of sunshine themselves. They are a punishing force to be reckoned with live as they blend so many different sounds and genres into some all-encompassing hardcore gift package and any band that hangs a Palestine flag on their amps are aces in my book. They radiated the true punk spirit for the 30 or so minutes they were on stage and I look forward to accidentally seeing them live again.
Going back to what I just mentioned in the above paragraph, I was not familiar with Loathe before this tour and after listening to many of their songs, I do not consider myself a fan of their studio material. I appreciate the nook they’ve carved out for themselves within the metalcore community and they all seem like very talented musicians and generous people but their brand of atmospheric, progressive, and experimental metalcore just isn’t for my ears. Live? Now, that’s another story. Loathe, just like Show Me The Body, killed live and I had a lot of fun watching them. Coming all the way from the streets of Liverpool, Loathe was a punishing force on stage with their massive guitar sound, intricately rhythmic drum work, and the brutal lows and screeching highs of lead vocalist Kadeem France. Speaking of Kadeem, they were absolutely my favorite part of watching Loathe perform live. Their stage presence was a welcome juxtaposition from that of Show Me The Body and all the little dances and smiling Kadeem did put me even more into a fantastic mood.
I’ve now seen Knocked Loose three times live and each one was special in its own way. My favorite of the three is still, and may forever be, their Lollapalooza aftershow set at Cobra Lounge last year with maybe 100 people in attendance. Thursday night at the Salt Shed was not any less amazing but definitely a different vibe. Now performing on a stage that has 10 times more space this time around in Chicago, they really made use of it with surprisingly gorgeous fake trees and an illuminated cross perched upon a grassy knoll. The illuminated cross not only made for some beautifully rich irony with the themes of their new album You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To but also a cinematic backdrop that made almost every moment more photo-worthy than the last.
They tore onto the stage with “Blinding Faith”, the lead single from their newest album that came out only a couple of weeks before their Chicago tour stop. The album has seemingly taken the music world by storm and although I’m still warming up to it, that didn’t stop me from finding that many of my favorite performances of the night were of songs from their new album. “Don’t Reach For Me” is a song that hasn’t really clicked for me yet on record but live might have been my favorite performance of the night due to its heavier-than-life chorus to its verses that come as blazing fast as they go. “Suffocate” was another song from their new album that I loved hearing live for its intense drumming on the verses to the more fun and upbeat percussive sounds found during Poppy’s feature that lead singer Bryan Garris handled well solo.
As far as the classics go, “Deadbringer” from their 2016 full-length debut Laugh Tracks hit especially hard with the lead singer from Speed taking over the punishing breakdown finale. Even though they just released quite possibly their most critically well-received album yet, they didn’t play much from You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To and instead spent the majority of their setlist calling out the greatly underrated tracks of their second album, 2019’s A Different Shade of Blue. The performance of one of my favorites from that album, “Denied By Fate”, reminded me just how absolutely disgustingly destructive the riffs are in that song - one of the few moments of the night where my mouth was hitting the floor.
Not forgetting the release that pushed them over the edge in terms of commercial success within the metal/hardcore community, they came back to A Tear in the Fabric of Life a few times that night but no performance of a song from that release was as terrifying and menacing as “Where Light Divides the Holler”, quite possibly their best song objectively speaking. Bringing it back to the classics, Knocked Loose welcomed Kadeem France, lead singer of Loathe, back onto the stage to help out with “Billy No Mates”, one of the many standout tracks from Laugh Tracks. It was so lovely to see some of the openers get to share in the energy and passion that Knocked Loose was feeling on stage to a sold-out Chicago crowd and it was nothing but representative of the hardcore community’s age-old motto: “Sharing (the mic) is caring”.
Closing out the night was the one-two punch of their two Upon Loss singles that came out in 2023 as a sort of teaser for what was to come in May of 2024 with their newest album. “Deep in the Willow” will never not be one of my favorite Knocked Loose songs, especially from a drumming perspective. Drummer Kevin Kaine has some of his most impressive fills and expertly subtle rhythm work on that song and completely he nailed it live. “Everything is Quiet Now” brought the evening to a timely end but, of course, went out not with a whimper but with many continuous bangs until all but the footsteps of a jubilant and satisfied crowd making their exits was quiet. It’s an utterly bewildering thing to have such an extreme band play such a massive venue like the Salt Shed in this day and age and the fact that they got to this moment by releasing their most sonically aggressive and emotionally ruinous album to date is nothing but respectable, commendable, and downright awe-inspiring; they truly deserve all the success in the world. Knocked Loose is one of those bands I’ll never not see when they’re in town and Thursday night at the Salt Shed did not dissuade me from that.
All photos by Lorenzo Zenitsky.