The Concert Series Vol. 4 Knocked Loose

Welcome back (finally) to the concert series! Today we'll be revisiting the June 5th Knocked Loose concert in Toronto, ON.

For starters back to back concerts are not easy nor is the journey when you're not staying the in city they take place in but oh well. Taking place the day after G. Soul's concert and having another day of work I was pretty tired and a little defeated and burnt out feeling. I woke up around the same time as the day prior, journeyed to the radio stations studio at my school for my 10am shift. Finishing at 2pm, I hurriedly grabbed my stuff and headed home to get ready.

To say I was debating on not even going to the show is an understatement but in the end I did go to the show obviously or I wouldn't be making this blog post or video. So once I got home my phone was instantly thrown on to charge while I got ready. Concert clothes, ticket, charger and charging cord in bag, drink for the drive and at about 4pm I was in my car and off to Toronto.

It wouldn't be a drive to Toronto without horrible traffic. bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic instead of the now unusual 100 km/hr that the highway should be. I got to the parking lot dedicated to History (I pre-purchase my parking for the venue) around probably closer 7pm but I did make it into the venue before the first band played (thank god because I love them).

SPEED

Aussie hardcore band Speed was first and let me start by saying I love these guys so much, they're phenomenal on record and a million times better in person live! (And their first headline show doesn't hit Toronto 🥲) Now, I don't remember exactly all the songs the boys played but I do remember Big Bite from their 2022 Ep "Gang Called Speed" being preformed (it's one of my favorites). Speed was on stage shortly after I entered the venue at around 7pm and played for a good 30 or so minutes. During the set Jem had explained how the band was jut like us, simply hardcore kids who met at a show and then formed the band now known as Speed. During this little speech Jem had said something that really hit the heart (at least for me) and actually had me puling my phone out to write it down.

"Find your people, Love them with all your heart, and never look back." Jem Siow, Speed

This quote (along side quotes by G Dragon and ShinEE's Key) are what sparked my "quote of the day" on 88.3 CJIQ that I do during my Midday show (10am-2pm until Aug 23rd). So Thank you Jem for having this little moment to spark this little thing for me.

There was also a moment, I think just after their first or second song where some one in the audience said something or something else I'm not sure had sparked Jem to randomly (to me at least since I don't know what sparked it) just go "Actually I'm Asian". so that defiantly brought some smiles and some confused laughter at the back where I was to be brought out.

but over all I loved their set I'd kill to actually see them live again and it was great because not everyone was at the show yet so I was able to for the most part see the stage from where I was standing!

LOATHE

Second to take over the stage was Liverpool formed Heavy Metal English group Loathe. (or as I pronounce Loath without the E cuz idk I probably didn't register the E at one point). From what I learn from talking with my classmate who also was at the show, is Loathe and Show me the body were switching every so often for who was the main support for Knocked loose and that's how we ended up with Loathe second.

Loathe was great on stage, a little softer (IMO) than Speed so it was a little bit of a drop of energy but not enough to ward off the pits. If I were to "rate" all the bands that played tonight Loathe would probably be 3rd out of the 4 bands for me personally. I do love a good handful of songs off their album "I Let It in and It Took Everything" which they played about 7 songs off of or so which was nice. but around this time more people started to fill in so my view of the stage was quite short lived as Loathe came on around 7:40pm so that was unfortunate and I'm not one to push and shove through a crowd to see a show (the reason I'm not the biggest GA fan). Loathe did play a almost 40 minute long I think set though.

Keep an eye out for the youtube video to see footage of the show (and what my view was for the majority of it). I can already tell by the blog post that this video will probably be longer then that of the 40 some odd minutes that was the G. Soul video.

SHOW ME THE BODY

So this part will be a little shorter because I in all honestly could've done without show me the body and I'm not the only one who thought that. The energy did hit a drop when SMTB came on and i think it came down to the energy they themselves brought to the stage. I loved the banjo and the unconventional touches they bring to the hardcore scene. But in this set up and ticket of bands it was out of place. SMTB was on around 8:30pm and played for

KNOCKED LOOSE

Knocked loose mother fucker! So I'm going to admit to my sin right now and say I did not capture the iconic knocked loose barking on camera. Knocked Loose was on just after 9pm and they raised the energy right back to the roof and beyond. They played a killer show and know how to control a crowd. They played 3 new songs from the new album “you won’t go before you’re supposed to” and 5 songs from the “a different shade of blue” album along side others.

Unfortunately for me. I couldn’t see the stage at all. All I seen was the backs and backs of heads with the occasional view of the stage which meant I missed one of the coolest things…. The wall of death. Yeah there was one of those and I don’t even think I was able to lift my hand high enough to actually capture it on video.

Brian and the rest of the boys are phenomenal live and I wouldn’t be surprised if they “eat their cds”

MERCH AND HOME

so merch…. If you don’t know I have a “check list” for buying merch, mostly does it have tour dates/name of the tour and look cool. Or is it physical copies of albums.

The line for merch the whole night was from the table to the other side of the venue so I never got in line but knocked loose did have flyers around with a QR code to scan to see what they had and if they had it in stock still. As for the others well I couldn’t venture over and see due to the crowd… seriously my enemy was the crowd this whole show it was crazy. Anyways I didn’t buy any merch to be short. The merch didn’t meet my checklist/standards and so that just meant I saved some money.

Now the drive home wasn’t horrible obviously getting out of Toronto takes forever during the day but at night usually it’s pretty good. What wasn’t pretty good was the Mc Donald’s I went to taking almost 30 minutes of not longer. And I couldn’t leave the line if I wanted due to the set up of it. But eventually I got my food and went on my way to head home. The roads like I mentioned were pretty clear, a few small hiccups but overall quite smooth. I took maybe an hour and a half to get home which was nice since I once again had work the next day (wasn’t able to get any days off for the concerts or after) but I still got home at I think 2am maybe. And I got to bed and crashed lol.

*in regard to the video recap/ concert series video I have no clue when I will get to even editing or putting it all together but in the mean time check out the other videos and my instagram mute.chaos and hopefully I’ll regain my creative senses and motivation soon!