Las Vegas was crawling with music fans and punk rock label Pure Noise Records took full advantage to throw a 15 year anniversary party on Friday night. Headlined by hardcore heavyweights Knocked Loose, the lineup also included Counterparts, Spanish Love Songs and SeeYouSpaceCowboy for a packed celebration at the House of Blues.
SeeYouSpaceCowboy has been touring nonstop this year and their presence at this show was warmly embraced by the audience trickling in from the Mandalay Bay casino. Singer Connie Sgarbossa stomped onstage and the band threw all of their energy into a brief but heart-pounding set. “Silhouettes in Motion” was a clear fan favorite and the audience immediately started the mosh pit to keep that energy going throughout their set. After plenty of gratitude and sweat, the band closed their time onstage with “Chewing the Scenery”.
Spanish Love Songs may have seemed like the oddball on the show’s heavier lineup, but their passion and talent made them a great fit to keep up the intensity of the evening. They only had a short time to wow the crowd, but with songs like “Haunted” and “Clean-Up Crew”, they certainly won the hearts of the hardcore fans in the room.
Counterparts is another Pure Noise staple band and their constant touring has put them in front of diverse audiences for years. The House of Blues pit was swirling immediately with a mass of people moshing and crowd surfing to “Choke” and “Your Own Knife”. The band spoke very little between songs but they took their job to hype up the audience very seriously with such a powerful set. After what felt like only a heartbeat, they closed out with “Whispers of Your Death”.
Atlas has been in the pit with Knocked Loose many times over the years but their performance in Las Vegas was one of their best of 2024. The band has only gotten more popular but singer Bryan Garris was humble in his heartfelt speech thanking Pure Noise for taking a chance on them so many years ago and allowing them to grow in their sound.
Don’t expect too much more sentimentality from the band, however- their call for violence in the pit had bodies hurtling over the barricade and more than one person exiting the pit with bloody lips and noses. Everyone was clearly having the time of their lives, moshing frantically to “Mistakes Like Fractures” and “The Calm That Keeps You Awake”.
“Blinding Faith” drew massive cheers from the crowd, along with the other choices from the band’s latest album. In a very special moment for this lineup, Counterparts singer Brendan Murphy joined them for “Billy No Mates” as even more crowd surfers launched themselves towards the stage. The set came to a close with the brutal “Suffocate” before one more emotional moment on “Sit & Mourn”- an unexpectedly quiet way to end a beautiful, violent celebration. Sweaty, bloodied fans spilled into the casino lobby, adding a touch of that hardcore atmosphere to a nostalgic weekend in Las Vegas- and solidifying Knocked Loose’s stellar year with the promise of much more to come.
