After a dreary few days and a rainy afternoon run, I was more than ready to head inside to a place full of energy to get me out of a little funk. I was happy to find myself in The Armory for a stacked evening of music featuring headliners Knocked Loose. I missed their headlining show earlier this spring when it made a stop in Minneapolis at The Fillmore, and was super excited to catch the band on their current album cycle. This show also happened to be a welcome distraction from other current events occurring during the day, and was an opportunity to get lost in the music. On time at 6:30, the lights dimmed for the first band of the night.
Right on cue, Militarie Gun walked on stage and scorched through their opening set. With a majority of their songs leaning on the shorter side, it felt as though the band was sprinting through their time on stage (even joking at one point in their set that they had 50 songs left), but not without leaving a mark with their signature sound. Even though I was familiar with some of their songs (thanks to a random Turnstile Spotify playlist), I was hooked on Militarie Gun from their opening riffs. The Los Angeles based band showcased a blend of punk rock with a dash of hardcore, and had me eagerly awaiting getting their music on my rotation. More importantly, Militarie Gun more than did their job in getting the crowd amped for the night, and ready for the remaining by three bands.
Next up for the night was Drain. Yet another one of those bands that I wasn’t familiar with prior to seeing them live, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The band set the tone immediately, sending the crowd from a mellow 2 or 3 out of 10 all the way up to at least 12 out of ten on the energy scale. Lead vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro constantly called for the crowd to make bigger and bigger circle pits, and even jumped into the crowd himself at the beginning of their set for a little crowd surfing. It seemed as though the crowd ate up everything Drain had to offer; it didn’t matter if the crowd knew the music or not, you didn’t need to know their songs to get a little wild: moshing, jumping, and crowd surfing along to their flair of hardcore. I was left floored by their performance, with the only other band I’ve seen with that intense of a crowd reaction live being Turnstile.
After Drain left the stage, it wasn’t long before The Garden was up as the penultimate band. Not to the fault of The Garden, but after the first two openers, my personal expectation of what was to be next was a little deflated at first. Sonically I wasn’t sure what was happening with The Garden; to my surprise, they threw in more and more electronic elements to round out the bassist and drummer on stage. Playing up to their joker theme, The Garden was not only dressed in joker outfits and makeup, but even had a giant inflatable joker join them on stage after a few songs. While their sound wasn’t for me, there were definitely moments where the crowd was vibing along and having a great time.
Shortly after The Garden departed the stage, a banner was lifted to block the stage setup for Knocked Loose. At the end of a brief intermission, the intro of “The Thirst” began to play throughout The Armory as the band came out on stage. Right before the banner dropped the band burst right into the opening track off of their newest album, setting the tone for their set. As a huge fan of the band’s newest album “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To,” I was personally thrilled to see almost the entire album played live. Knocked Loose did a tremendous job of mixing in plenty of older material to go along with what was nearly al album play through, proving it difficult to pick a favorite moment from their set. Their addition of pyro mixed in during a handful of songs was the cherry on top of their performance. The last time I saw Knocked Loose headline was right around the time “A Different Shade of Blue” dropped, and while I knew it would be a rowdy show, I was impressed with how good their live show really is. Even though their set was just over an hour, it seemed to be the perfect amount of time, and it left me eagerly awaiting their return to the Twin Cities.
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