From the darkness, the sound of a car began to rev. Welcome to A Tear In the Fabric of Life, its opening track beginning the ascending climb towards the anticipation of the experience known as Knocked Loose. Here comes that drop. The lights come up. Boom.

Straight out of the gate, the band went full force. Hard. The crowd immediately reciprocated and began to thrash and mosh. It didn’t take long to realize that what one was looking at, was in fact The Wolf of Wall Street. Here is Leonardo DiCaprio himself, amping up his followers, urging them to participate in this moment, in their own lives; that this is necessary, nay, integral to fully living. To paraphrase DiCaprio frontman Bryan Garris, “You are here. You are alive. We feed off of the chaos and energy. Be a part of it.”

Lead guitarist and backing vocalist Isaac Hale broke it down and laid it out straight that they wanted to see everyone moving, pushing each other, and getting that circle pit going.

It was quite admirable watching how the band kept up their engagement with the crowd without slowing the show down at all. They did not miss a frickin’ beat. Knocked Loose puts on one of the best live shows out there. Heavy? Some of the heaviest. Motivational seminar? Absolutely.

Set List:

  1. Where Light Divides the Holler
  2. Trapped in the Grasp of a Memory
  3. God Knows
  4. Denied by Fate
  5. Billy No Mates
  6. Forget Your Name (Intro)
  7. Belleville
  8. …And I Still Wander South
  9. Forced to Stay
  10. Deadringer
  11. All My Friends
  12. Oblivion’s Peak
  13. Return to Passion
  14. Guided by the Moon
  15. Contorted in the Faille
  16. Mistakes Like Fractures
  17. Counting Worms
  18. Permanent

Movements

Set List:

  1. Full Circle
  2. Skin to Skin
  3. Tunnel Vision
  4. Third Degree
  5. Barbed Wire Body
  6. Seneca
  7. Colorblind
  8. Suffer Through
  9. Daylily

Knocked Loose finish up their headlining tour A Tear in the Fabric of Life tour with Movements, Kublai Khan, and Koyo this week.

Get tickets here: http://www.knockedloosehc.com/tour/

Listen to, buy and watch the short film of Knocked Loose’s latest EP release A Tear in the Fabric of Life

Dashboard Confessional is always a breath of fresh air to see. The last time we covered them, it was also an outdoor show. The lighting this time around for their set at 101WKQX PIQNIQ was a bit dark until the burst of everything at the end of the last song. The lighting was great and every band member went full out. Lead guitarist and backing vocalist Armon Jay ended up on the ground shredding his guitar, drummer Chris Kamrada went double time on bass and cymbal hits and bassist Scott Schoenbeck and lead vocalist Chris Carrabba covered the rest of the stage with hair whips, jumps, and serious energy. If only we had been able to be up close for those moments. Hopefully someone in the crowd captured something of that amazing outro. While we can’t show you any of that, here’s what did capture and can show you from their set:

Bush is a staple in rock and especially grunge. It’s as if they never left the scene. Going on hiatus in 2002, they reformed 8 years later in 2010. It is now another 8 years past and Bush is still on fire. Their performance at 101WKQX PIQNIQ was electric. Lead singer Gavin Rossdale ran through the far seats of the lawn mid-song sailing through half of the concert-goers. It was amazing to see a wave of phones and smiles hurl through the crowd as the band continued on with Machinehead as Gavin made his way around the stadium. Take a look through the photos of Bush’s set this past week.

NEEDTOBREATHE really brought the light to Chicago with a sold out show on a Thursday night. The lighting was unique and spectacular. Huge, two-story speaker-like amps lined the back of the stage with “eye lights” complete with eyelashes scattered about in a polka-dot fashion. Bear Rinehart wore a disco ball jacket for a portion of the set. Lights of all colors warmed up the venue and the crowd. Both Rinehart brothers came out into the crowd during songs. Bo traveled around the entire main floor singing with his guitar during an upbeat song while Bear popped up towards the back of the GA floor with his guitar during an acoustic song. All the Feels Tour was very accurately named. The band is gearing up for their third leg of the tour with acoustic sets so definitely check out dates and grab tickets to see them!

What can we say? We got a soft spot for Third Eye Blind so covering this one was extra special. The evening couldn’t have been set any better along Lake Michigan on Northerly Island with views of the Chicago skyline and perfect summer weather. It was truly fit for a Summer Gods Tour.

Silversun Pickups came on with a lot of fun energy and had an elegantly simple yet beautiful backdrop and light display. Lots of pink, magenta, and purple hues splashed the stage and poured out into the audience in the form of pure energy.

Third Eye Blind stepped out onto a post sun-kissed stage. Their set began behind a Kabuki drop with a cool, appropriately adapted live version of We Are Drugs EP’s “Weightless.” The music started with a flash and a burst, pulling back for the first verse and building upon the repeating line “Summer gods got me screaming” until all the instruments came back in full force. Upon said impact, the curtain dropped and the show went off and running. The band played five additional songs from their newer material before diving into playing their debut album that graced our presence twenty years ago. They ended the night with an encore of “Never Let You Go” and “God Of Wine.”

It’s always a joy having Third Eye Blind in Chicago and we look forward to their next time around. (We fully expect songs from Out of the Vein next time, by the way. -cough cough-)

Third Eye Blind

 

Silversun Pickups