Bonnaroo 2023 Artist Spotlight: Knocked Loose

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2023 lineup. After roaring back to life last summer, after two years off due to Covid and weather, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 20th installment (and 22nd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also more changes and improvements then we’ve seen in years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 15-18 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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Though Bonnaroo has never gone particularly hard for heavy music fans, the fest’s commitment to curating a musically diverse lineup generally leads to at least a couple of acts each year who fall into the metal or hardcore or heavy punk category, and no band better exemplifies that niche better for the 2023 bill than Knocked Loose, hot off a similarly left of field appearance at Coachella. Formed a decade ago in Oldham County, Kentucky, outside Louisville (though several members made music together as teens before formally cementing the band), Knocked Loose erupted onto the scene with a pair of well-received early EPs, before inking a deal with Pure Noise ahead of their 2016 debut album, Laugh Tracks. With a sound that falls somewhere in between hardcore and metalcore, their style fuses metal riffs and hardcore breakdowns with melodic sensibility and some face-melting, beatdown hardcore breaks, helping them become an unlikely mainstream crossover success, as peers like Code Orange and Turnstile have also managed to do. Part of a wave of 2010s acts who’ve helped revive the metalcore scene, which last really flourished in the mid-00s, Knocked Loose have supported bands like A Day to Remember, Comeback Kid, Gojira, and Every Time I Die, and played main stages the last few years of the Vans Warped Tour, a fest that catered much more to hardcore bands than Bonnaroo. Still, we’re hoping the Farm is ready to throw down, as 2019 sophomore LP A Different Shade of Blue helped further hone the group’s sludgy, heavy, mosh-ready sound, and 2021 Covid-born EP A Tear in the Fabric of Life showcased a more experimental side, as a concept album about grief and isolation, rounding out an impressive catalogue. We’ll see you in the pit!

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