As I'm beginning to type this out, Sunday night is about to turn into Monday morning in my native New Jersey. On the other side of the country, and streaming globally on YouTube, Knocked Loose are wrapping up their coveted second-to-last set time on the Sonora set at this year's Coachella Festival. Those assembled appear to be much more prepared than those infamous flower crown-adorned fans in the front row during Title Fight's set, who were most certainly not anticipating crowd surfers or the energy of Pennsylvania's most highly-regarded punk bands of the 2010s. With the Kentucky hardcore kings onstage, it seems as though there were far more willing participants. The stage diving started early and continued often. It's entirely possible that when the band called for "The biggest circle pit Coachella has ever seen," that the record was actually set. What's more, when Bryan Garris held out the microphone during both "Mistakes Like Fractures" and "Counting Worms," there were plenty of voices belting the lyrics back at him. It's now being reported that Billie Eilish was seen sidestage, bobbing her head to one of the band's many breakdowns. Knocked Loose pulled out all the stops to make their set memorable, as it appears they opened the set with a brand new song.
From the time the initial lineup was announced, this has felt like a coronation of sorts for Knocked Loose. Ever since the release of their concept EP A Tear in the Fabric of Life, the band have risen meteorically throughout the heavy music scene. Last year alone, they locked up a coveted spot opening for Bring Me the Horizon after headlining a full US tour that saw a majority of the dates sold out. It's likely that the tour with fellow Coachella 2023 performers $uicideboy$ and Coachella 2022 alums Code Orange played a part in getting the band's set secured, but it also aligns to a developing trend of the premier US West Coast-based music festival booking emo/metalcore/punk acts who have proven their staying power and crossover potential in recent years. Code Orange certainly fell into that category, as they were slated to perform in the desert in 2020 before a pandemic forced the entire event to be cancelled. Thankfully, Coachella made good on their booking when the festival returned in 2022, and it produced perhaps the single greatest piece of merchandise the band have ever created, which says a lot:
Unfortunately, Code Orange were informed that they were unable to sell the shirts (likely due to licensing issues with A24, or whatever), so it's unlikely that you'll see someone wearing one at a show. Seriously, these shirts were never put up for sale. And even if they were, they're long sold out, and I definitely don't have one.
While it does seem like Code Orange and Knocked Loose's headline-stealing appearances at teh festival are pivotal moments in the scene's history, it's important to remember that they are hardly the first bands from the "scene" that have appeared at the festival. You may recall the aforementioned Title Fight set, which produced perhaps the greatest crowd shot in our generation. We've also seen bands like PUP, Touche Amore, PVRIS, Turnstile, and The Front Bottoms make appearances, with Turnstile perhaps turning their performance into a catalyst for them to become festival darlings over the last couple of years. While emo has had its moments in the sun at Coachella, the theme that's developed is that the focus is on young, up-and-coming and, most importantly, marketable bands. Despite a wealth of options, only AFI and Coheed & Cambria are the only emo "legacy" acts that have made the trek to the desert (I suppose Hayley Williams surprising the crowd to perform "Misery Business" with Billie Eilish counts, too). Given the rising popularity of the When We Were Young Festival, Sad Summer Tour, and countless other nostalgia-fueled experiences, I'm afraid that trend isn't likely to change, either. Still, those who went to see those "old-timers" were treated to some iconic imagery. Davey Havok, adorned in a perfectly-suited jacket to promote the band's underrated 2013 effort Burials, made his way to the crowd for a few songs, and had the crowd in the palm of his hand the entire afternoon.
Despite all that I've laid out, it's clear that emo's most iconic Coachella moment comes from the sci-fi rock outfit who have always felt at home on big stages and moments. Promoting their self-released double-album Afterman series, the band's set was career-spanning, but anyone who's listened to their music know that a Coheed set can only end one way: the cacophonous finale of "Welcome Home." It's easy to end a set on the high note when you've got the emo genre's answer to "Free Bird" in your back pocket, but Coheed found a way to turn the intensity way past 11, as they were joined onstage by the USC marching band to create a Coachella core memory. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a band that seem to have created a few of them throughout their illustrious career, and has survived as a crowning achievement in emo history, one that fans of the genre can point to with pride.
As we get set for another weekend of livestreams at the biggest music festival in the United States, we see that Coachella is in a bit of a crisis at the top of its lineup. Frank Ocean's weekend-closing set was cut short on Sunday, and it's unclear as to what really happened behind the scenes. This will mark the second straight year that Sunday's headliner was mired in controversy--you'll recall that Kanye West abandoned his headlining post mere days before last year's festival--and you simply wouldn't know if you were only paying attention to the scene bands that appeared at the festival. Alongside Knocked Loose, hardcore up-and-comers Soul Glo and Scowl also go their time in the sun, and it's clear that with the blending of emo into more and more pop music, there's a place for bands like this to carve out in more festivals that don't have "rock" in their name. These festivals can end up being a great vehicle to showcase these different facets of emo, as the controversy and melodrama is left to the bigger artists on the bill, while bands who have been grinding out life on the road are able to put the focus on the music, where it belongs. It's getting more and more difficult to ignore that emo is crashing some of the biggest parties on the festival circuit now, meaning that this image was even more symbolic--or maybe even prophetic--than we thought.
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