Knocked Loose w/ BUCKET and Worn Out — Dublin, IE — 23.6.26

I was only in Dublin to visit, and somehow that turned into shooting Knocked Loose at their sold-out headlining show at The Academy. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday.

I also somehow managed to catch Ireland during a heat wave. By the time the first band walked onstage, The Academy already felt like an oven. It was packed shoulder to shoulder, there wasn’t any air moving, and everyone knew they were going to leave completely drenched.

Worn Out kicked things off, and within a couple of minutes it was obvious they weren’t treating this like just another opening slot. Frontman Xander Coughlan told the crowd he’d actually been kicked out of The Academy years ago for hardcore dancing, which got a huge reaction before the band even hit their stride. Once they did, there wasn’t much standing still after that. Coughlan spent as much time in the crowd as he did onstage, and the energy just kept building. It felt less like an opener and more like the first shove that sent the rest of the night downhill in the best possible way.

Dublin’s own BUCKET followed, and I still don’t know how three people make that much noise. They have this way of sounding like everything is about to completely unravel before snapping right back together. Josh Dorrell was especially fun to watch behind the kit, constantly pushing everything right to the edge without letting it fall apart. They also managed to squeeze in a few funny moments between songs, which was a nice break before things got much heavier.

Just a couple nights earlier, Knocked Loose had been playing Aviva Stadium supporting Metallica. Seeing them in a room like The Academy almost felt like two different bands, except this is clearly the environment that suits them best. Low ceilings, barely enough room to move, and a crowd that’s practically on top of the stage. As impressive as stadium shows are, hardcore just hits differently in a room like this.

The second “Blinding Faith” started, the floor erupted. I don’t remember there being much of a warm-up. One minute everyone was packed together waiting, and the next security was already catching crowd surfers over the barricade. From where I was shooting, it felt like there was something happening every time I looked up from my camera. Circle pits never really stopped, bodies kept flying overhead, and security barely had a chance to reset before the next person came over.

Knowing guitarist Isaac Hale had been recovering after being hit by a car only made the performance more impressive. If he was feeling it, you couldn’t tell. The whole band looked locked in from start to finish.

The set never really lost momentum. Older songs like “Mistakes Like Fractures,” “Oblivion’s Peak,” “Belleville,” and “Piece by Piece” got exactly the reaction you’d expect, but what stood out to me was how naturally the newer material fit alongside them. Nobody checked out when songs from ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’ came up. If anything, the room seemed to get even louder during tracks like “Moss Covers All,” “Take Me Home,” “God Knows,” and “Suffocate.”

Bryan Garris has a way of controlling a room without having to say much. Half the time all it took was a quick motion toward the crowd before another pit opened up or another wave of surfers came over the barricade. His voice sounded just as sharp and frantic as ever, cutting straight through the wall of guitars.

I also have to give some credit to The Academy’s security team. They were working nonstop from the first song until the last, catching an endless stream of crowd surfers while somehow keeping everything moving. It couldn’t have been an easy night, especially with how hot the room had gotten.

By the time “Billy No Mates,” “Counting Worms,” “Deep in the Willow,” and “Everything Is Quiet Now” closed out the night, everyone looked completely spent. The lights came up, people were trying to catch their breath, and somehow there were still smiles everywhere.

Knocked Loose have spent the last year proving they can hold their own on some of the biggest stages in the world, but this show was a reminder of why they got there in the first place. Give them a packed club, a loud crowd, and a room that’s just a little too small, and they’re almost impossible to beat. If this was your first time seeing Knocked Loose, you picked a good one.

Worn Out

BUCKET

Knocked Loose