Knocked Loose and Denzel Curry brought their co-headlining Hive Mind Tour to The Anthem recently, with Superheaven and Boundaries in support. I walked in an elder millennial who was around for the first wave of metalcore and never warmed to it. So I came as a clinician: notebook out, at the mouth of the pit, here to study the ritual.
My history with Knocked Loose is limited, but notable. At the ill-fated Blue Ridge Rock Festival in 2023, I was hungover, lounging on a beanbag couch in the VIP tent, while Knocked Loose jiggled my guts. That was Friday, the day after a supercell thunderstorm chose violence and cut the first day short, and the only day the whole festival worked. Saturday and Sunday were canceled outright. Slipknot headlined that night.
Doors
Even before the doors opened on Oct. 3, at 4:30pm, there was a line down the main walk on the Wharf that stretched for what seemed like an eternity. It was full of people waiting to get into The Anthem, all presumably hoping to jockey for a premium standing spot near the stage. It wasn’t always a contiguous line; ushers broke it up, guarding the various ends to keep the businesses happy and make sure no one cut.
A minivan pulled up and blocked traffic. It unloaded a gaggle of dudes in hardcore shirts like a clown car, one in a multicolor propeller hat.
At the very front of the line, I met Alex and Madison, about an hour into their wait. They were there mainly for Knocked Loose and Boundaries.
“Superheaven’s new to me,” Alex remarked. “I know Denzel Curry as well, but Boundaries, I know very well.”
In the will call line, Cole told me he’d won his tickets a week earlier in a giveaway at KA-CHUNK!! Records in Annapolis, and he had brought his son. They were most stoked for Superheaven and Knocked Loose.
“Just keep hardcore fun and bring your kids to shows.”
Inside, the merch line wrapped into the main floor and around itself a few times like a snake eating its own tail. An usher with a wand marked the end of it.
Boundaries
Boundaries took the stage at 6:30pm sharp. They told us this was their first-ever show in DC. What a venue to start in.
They are musically very much in the tradition of hardcore, with a smattering of Boris — a fleet of Orange amps to match. The guitars are very downtuned, the riffs very groove-oriented, relying on the bass and drums.
The pit was chaotic and started immediately. It turned into a circle pit on command. Virgil almost got swept away into it.
“We’re playing old ones, we’re playing new ones,” barked vocalist Matthew McDougal. Then: “DC, give me a million fucking crowd surfers,” into “Turning Hate Into Rage.” The crowd obliged and sent many bodies as tribute.
“Open … open … open … are you fucking feeling me?” for “Torn wide open.”
“WASHINGTON DC … SWIM! SWIM! From this barricade to the circle … PUSH! PUSH!! PUSH!!!”
They didn’t want us photographing from behind the barricade because they wanted an onslaught of bodies to flow.
This is raw emotion, unfiltered. It’s as cathartic for the band as it is for the crowd. They might be insulted by this, but it really does remind me of the visceral rawness of Slipknot’s debut album.
I don’t quite understand what the two guitars are doing differently. Presumably layered textures of riffs; it’s not like they’re harmonizing melodies or anything. The clinician made a note to circle back. I failed to circle back.
“Only endless” is their most overtly “emo” song, with melodies and clean vocals repeating “I want you to know” over and over.
Then: “I am so grateful that me and my best friends get to play shows for people like you every fucking night. Thank you.”
Watch the official music video for “Only endless” by Boundaries on YouTube:
One last demand for bodies over the barricade for the finale, “Easily Erased.” It had more emo melody and harmonizing than the early songs, and it ended with lots of discordant harmonics before dropping back into their heavy riffs. The crowd gave them much love.
After they wrapped, bassist Nathan Calcagno closed with a plea: “Free Palestine.”
Superheaven
Between sets, I met Colin, in a Boundaries shirt, who’d seen them in Pennsylvania last year.
“I thought that it was a very visceral performance,” he said. They ended with “Easily Erased,” one of his favorites.
He was also there for Knocked Loose, his first time seeing them. His parting words: “If you thought the energy was crazy for Boundaries, get ready for Knocked Loose.”
I saw a guy in a Slipknot shirt and felt vindicated. The crowd does skew young. I didn’t recognize the PA music.
In the bathroom, I ran into a young guy furiously trying to wash a lot of blood out of his jeans, in vain. He had a cut on his face.
I asked what he was doing.
“Washing out blood,” he said.
“Why?” I asked. “You earned it.”
“It’s not my blood,” he retorted tersely, and went back to hopelessly scrubbing with his hands.
The pit is not for everyone.
People were in a great mood, all smiles and laughter. A birthday girl in line for the bar had driven up from Virginia Beach for Superheaven and Knocked Loose. When the banner dropped for Superheaven, the crowd cheered.
Superheaven came on slow and clean and heavy, very different from Boundaries. I see why they get accused of being shoegaze — relatively speaking; Taylor Madison has publicly rejected the label — but it’s unfair to them. They’re so much heavier than that label implies. They have more in common with doom bands like Paradise Lost and others of that ilk.
People were still dancing, but slowly and more introspectively. This was the exhale. The crowd responded positively, and by the second song the band had still not directly addressed us. The room was fuller now as more people showed up.
The last time I saw a crowd this quietly gobsmacked was The Cure closing HFStival in 2004: everyone swaying, enjoying it, and the whole endeavor completely orthogonal to what came before.
When they finally said anything to us, it was, “Give it up for Boundaries, everyone.”
Later: “Last night’s show was out in the rain.”
It is very sludge/doom adjacent with a two-joint minimum. You’d get a contact high from being in the crowd.
They closed with “Poor Aileen,” the one Ivy, in a Superheaven shirt, had been waiting for. She’s been a fan for years.
“I liked every single one of their songs,” she said. “So I was happy with whatever I got, but I was really hoping they performed ‘Poor Aileen,’ which they did.”
Watch the official visualizer for “Poor Aileen” by Superheaven on YouTube:
Denzel Curry
A digital, omnipresent voice asked, “Are you ready for Denzel Curry … are you ready for Knocked Loose?” and Curry went straight into “HIT THE FLOOR.” Spiritually, it’s similar to Metallica’s “Hit the Lights,” but they share very little else. The spirit is what matters.
For “PAT,” he demanded a pit, and the crowd obliged. His songs are short and heavy. He’s joined by his DJ and flanked onstage by what appear to be giant inflatable ghost Pokémon. They could be evil tanuki.
For “RICKY,” the whole crowd put its hands in the air.
I must admit I’m lyric-blind; it’s my ADHD. I can’t really hear more than fragments of his lyrics, and they’re an important part of his music. The clinician’s instruments have their limits.
The grooves are heavy, and it’s obvious why he is welcome at a hardcore show. As Cole noted, there’s a tremendous amount of overlap between the underground rap and extreme music scenes. It’s a proud tradition, pioneered by Aerosmith and Run-DMC on “Walk This Way” in 1986 and cemented by Anthrax and Public Enemy on “Bring the Noise” in 1991.
Jimmy, a Florida native I met after the show, says Curry has run with the hardcore kids for years, back to sharing small Orlando stages with them. The through line between Knocked Loose and Denzel Curry is closer than you might think.
He brings a raw, emotive power to his stage show, and he’s very dynamic, constantly moving around the stage. Curry says they’re from “Miami, FL.”
“CLOUT COBAIN” was my favorite song of his set. Of course, my melodic sensibilities are attracted to a song with a stronger melodic backbone; it reminds me of the synthwave artists I love.
Watch the official music video for “Clout Cobain” by Denzel Curry on YouTube:
The Anthem had filled out completely. Curry’s is a very hypnotic style of music, centering rhythm as one of the primary structures of the songs.
He made it a point to demand everyone in DC get low now.
GET LOW NOW.
The room coiled.
He closed with a Rage Against the Machine medley, “Killing in the Name” into “Bulls on Parade,” equal parts samples of the originals and musical reconstructions by him and his DJ.
A rap set ending on guitars.
They were running about 30 minutes behind schedule at this point in the night.
On the floor afterward, I met Tristan, Maddie, and Rich, who’d driven down from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, for Superheaven.
“Don’t know who these people are other than Superheaven,” one of them said. “This is all, like, a pleasant surprise.”
Curry was one of their favorites so far.
“Don’t tell [Superheaven] that.”
Knocked Loose
There was a pit before the band even started. They played approximately one bar of music, and the crowd poured forth like water. It was like watching a fluid dynamics experiment in physics class.
They came out screaming about DC in front of a massive cross.
Are they a Christian hardcore band?!
Virgil leaned in, conspiratorial.
“Justice are going to serve Knocked Loose with a cease and desist. They own the exclusive rights to the crucifix in heavy music. Black Sabbath has a carve-out. So does the Vatican, but only for pieces recorded before 1517.”
I checked. There is no such filing. There is also no such carve-out, though I couldn’t rule out Virgil’s claim about the Vatican.
Spooky trees flank the band to make the stage a haunted forest. In a curious move, the drummer sits on a riser offset stage left, and the bass player is offset stage right on his own riser.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS UP DC … EVERYTHING FUCKING MOVE.”
The shrieking of the singer and the intensity of the music remind me of Kataklysm. There’s a thread of death metal here, and it’s strong. I don’t think the crowd knows; it’s a side effect of what Knocked Loose is doing for Gen Z.
They gave shoutouts to Boundaries, Superheaven, and Denzel Curry. They’re only a week into the tour.
For “Mistakes Like Fractures,” vocalist Bryan Garris demanded “a million fucking crowd surfers.” The same order Boundaries gave a few hours earlier.
Later, Boundaries’ Matt McDougal joined them for “Billy No Mates.”
The pit is magnetic; it draws souls in willingly. The bodies are flowing toward the stage. Nowhere in the crowd is safe from chaos. Aesthetically, this is the same energy as Boundaries, but The Anthem is bursting at the seams.
This crowd should have been here two hours ago.
Garris insisted that everyone start pushing the person next to them.
“If you see someone, I want you to push them. If you see a phone, I want you to push that phone out of their fucking hands.”
Somewhere in that crowd, a stranger’s blood was finding its way onto someone else’s jeans.
Knocked Loose chose violence.
Garris went on to demand the biggest circle pit that had ever happened within these walls. Most of the crowd moved for him, but it’s hard to sustain inertia for something that massive.
I can’t help but wonder if the cross is ironic at this point. The crucifix is literally a cross to bear.
What does it mean? Are they expecting us to feel that it’s Church?
I figured it out: It’s the cover of You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, a cross of tube lights in a dark wood, and in the corner, a lone figure staring up at it, trying to work out what it means.
I knew how they felt.
Justice’s lawyers can stand down, but Virgil remains unconvinced.
Denzel Curry came out for his crossover spell with Knocked Loose, “Hive Mind.”
Then: “This is emo, motherfuckers.”
The pit is just an open karate dojo at this point.
At the end of Knocked Loose’s set, for “Counting Worms,” I witnessed the biggest circle pit I’ve ever seen. Literally the entire general-admission main floor of The Anthem is a hurricane vortex of bodies.
No encore.
Watch the official music video for “Billy No Mates/ Counting Worms” by Knocked Loose on YouTube:
After
I hung around the front of The Anthem and interviewed several people.
A group fresh off the floor gave me four reviews in a row:
“Excellent.”
“Tough.”
“Great show.”
“Fucking dope.”
One of them goes to about five shows a month.
“It’s probably the most dangerous show,” they said. “In the best way.”
Their pick of the night: “Boundaries was the best one.”
Superheaven?
“Pretty chill. It’s not shoegaze.”
Joseph, in a Denzel Curry shirt, had shown up at 6:15 to catch all four bands and support the openers.
“Probably the craziest show I’ve been to in years. Denzel’s the man. Knocked Loose is the best.”
His crew’s summation: “They’re the heaviest band that’s got swag.”
Their parting words: “Support heavy music.”
Nick, who fronts Omen Sky out of Calvert County, was at his 59th show of the year. He’s a fan of genre-blending bills.
“You’re gonna have people that never would have been exposed to one or the other and that are now fans for life.”
And the cross?
“People are gonna feel a multitude of ways just by seeing that very simple image,” he said. “Every single person in that audience is gonna relate to it different.”
Clinical summary: I enjoyed Boundaries the most. They screamed, Superheaven let the room exhale, Curry wound it back up, and Knocked Loose purged it, bloodily, under a lit cross.
Slipknot sold my generation that same catharsis; tonight, a new congregation lined up on the Wharf at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon for it.
### Setlists
Boundaries
1. Malconscience
2. Skies cast amber black
3. My Body Is a Cage
4. May this pain never leave
5. Turning Hate Into Rage
6. Torn wide open
7. Bitter ash, bitter love
8. Only endless
9. Easily Erased
Superheaven
1. Leach
2. Youngest Daughter
3. Stare at the Void
4. Numb to What Is Real
5. Long Gone
6. In on It
7. Poor Aileen
Denzel Curry
1. THE SCYTHE (intro, from tape)
2. HIT THE FLOOR
3. PAT
4. RICKY
5. BLACK FLAG FREESTYLE
6. EVIL GRIN
7. DIET_
8. Victory Lap Five (Fred again.. song)
9. Psycho (Denzel Curry & slowthai song)
10. We On Go II (BIA, A$AP Ferg & Denzel Curry song)
11. MUTT THAT BIH (Denzel Curry & The Scythe song)
12. Walkin
13. CLOUT COBAIN | CLOUT CO13A1N
14. SUMO | ZUMO
15. SKED
16. HOT ONE
17. Hate Government
18. STILL IN THE PAINT
19. LIT EFFECT (Denzel Curry & The Scythe song)
20. Ultimate
21. Killing in the Name / Bulls on Parade (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Knocked Loose
1. Killing You (unreleased; breakdown only)
2. Deep in the Willow
3. Everything Is Quiet Now (first part)
4. Don’t Reach for Me
5. Mistakes Like Fractures
6. Thirst
7. Piece by Piece
8. Oblivion’s Peak
9. Billy No Mates (with Matt McDougal)
10. Where Light Divides the Holler
11. God Knows
12. Moss Covers All
13. Take Me Home
14. Sit & Mourn
15. Blinding Faith
16. Belleville
17. Contorted in the Faille
18. The Way It Melts (unreleased)
19. Hive Mind (with Denzel Curry)
20. Suffocate
21. Counting Worms (with “Everything Is Quiet Now” breakdown)
Here are some photos of Knocked Loose performing live at The Anthem on Oct. 3, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Gerald Henry.
Here are some photos of Denzel Curry performing live at The Anthem on Oct. 3, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Gerald Henry.
Here are some photos of Superheaven performing live at The Anthem on Oct. 3, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Gerald Henry.
Here are some photos of Boundaries performing live at The Anthem on Oct. 3, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Gerald Henry.
