Knocked Loose brought their eclectic Hive Mind tour lineup to Kansas City, Missouri, on Oct. 22, solidifying their spot as one of the most uncompromising acts in the scene right now.
Uptown Theater hosted a lineup of artists that was seemingly impossible to categorize under one genre. The night started with Boundaries, a metalcore band from Hartford, Connecticut. The band’s sound was on par with that of the headliners, with crowd surfers and mosh pits consistent throughout their entire set.
The next set was from Superheaven, a band formed in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 2008 and formerly known as Daylight. I was unfamiliar with their music when going into the show, save for their track “Youngest Daughter,” which had its moment on TikTok not too long ago. Their sound is reminiscent of ’90s grunge, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Hum and Local H when they were playing. I would even say there are some shoegaze elements to their sound, which worked really well live; they filled the large room incredibly well and were very well received.
This tour has garnered attention for its eclectic lineup. Knocked Loose sort of advertised the tour as a co-headline tour with Denzel Curry following the collaborative title track on Knocked Loose’s new album “Hive Mind.” Knocked Loose aren’t strangers to musical collaborations, but welcoming a rapper into their work was a genre blend that fans and critics doubted at first—seeing them together live reinforced that they work wonderfully together.
Knocked Loose have admitted that the band’s intention was to produce a diverse sound that was difficult to categorize, and frontman Bryan Garris has described their sound as being “sandwiched between hardcore and metalcore.” It’s not very often that we see hardcore or metalcore bands collaborate with rap artists.
Denzel Curry went on around 8 p.m., and his set was dynamic and full of energy. The stage was decorated with large inflatable grim reapers and didn’t have any other decor—just his DJ at a table near the back of the stage.
Knocked Loose’s stage decor was concealed with a large curtain that cut the stage nearly in half, which placed Denzel close to the crowd for his set. His interaction with the crowd was incredible, and the first few rows were jumping the entire set.
His setlist consisted of twenty tracks, which is quite long for an opener; his DJ would cut songs in half or Denzel would perform his sections of tracks that were collaborations with other rap artists. He performed his track “WE ON GO II (feat. Denzel Curry),” which is a BIA and A$AP Ferg track that Denzel is featured on. He also played “Victory Lap Five,” “Psycho,” and “MUTT THAT BIH,” which are all collaborations as well.
He closed his set with a mashup cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In The Name” and “Bulls On Parade,” which made for a great transition into what was to come from Knocked Loose.
The stage was decorated with large willow trees, a riser, and a large light-up cross in the middle of the background. When the light turned off to signify the start of the show, the cross lit up in patterns in a heartbeat-like rhythm. The band walked out one by one, save for frontman Bryan Garris, and performed a breakdown from their unreleased track “Killing You.” Bryan made his way out, and they performed “Deep in the Willow” as the second song of the night.
Garris—dressed in black jeans, loafers, a white T-shirt, and a black button-down—is the last person I’d expect to sound the way he did. His vocals were some of the most intense I’ve ever heard live. Off the bat, he was moving around the stage and pulling intense poses to scream into the mic, coming up to the risers positioned at the front of the stage to hunch over during particularly intense vocal moments.
The way he commands the crowd was incredible to watch; there were several moments during the show where he would stand still on a riser with his mic at his side and stare into the sea of chaos with a stoic look on his face.
Their rhythm guitarist, Nicko Calderon, was also a great performer. He’s not afraid of movement and alternated between the middle of the stage and the risers, interacting with lead guitarist Isaac Hale, who mirrored him on the opposite side of the stage, throughout the show.
The other two members — bassist Kevin Otten and drummer Kevin ‘Pacsun’ Kaine — were placed on a large stage riser at the back of the stage, right under the cross and willow trees. Their stage setup made for really great visual contrast and added to their performance.
Being in the photo pit for the first three songs was one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve had while covering a show. There were multiple instances of me wiping off my lens due to Bryan spitting on my camera because of the intense nature of his vocals—not a problem; I’m honored, actually. I was also navigating the small space parallel to security, catching crowd surfers while making sure I was out of the way of the CO₂ jets. The band was incorporating pyrotechnics on this tour, but due to the smaller indoor layout of Uptown Theater, they had to settle for CO₂ jets, which blast high-pressure liquid carbon dioxide into the air to create thick, thirty-to-fifty-foot plumes of white fog.
During their song “Billy No Mates,” they brought out Matt McDougal, vocalist for opening band Boundaries. This landed about halfway through the set, and about ten songs later they brought out Denzel Curry to perform their collaborative track “Hive Mind” together.
The track was a hit amongst the crowd; surfing and moshing continued into the last of the setlist. They ended their set with “Counting Worms,” including a breakdown from their track “Everything is Quiet Now.” Garris and Hale instructed the crowd to perform a wall of death, a mosh maneuver where the audience splits down the middle into two opposing sides and then rushes to meet in the middle during the breakdown. It was an incredibly cool thing to witness and reinforced what so many of us love about show culture in the hardcore scene.
Ultimately, the Hive Mind tour proved that genre boundaries mean very little when artists are willing to experiment and bring something different to the stage.
