Emo Nite remains a love letter to 2000s nostalgia

The early aughts were wrought with contentious debate over the definition of emo. True believers proselytized Cap’n Jazz on shoddy message boards, mall rats lurking in the shadows of Hot Topic loaded their MP3 players with Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and concerned moms of America were gripped by the phantasmagorical terror of their nail-painted youth. As time has passed, though, the dust has settled, and “emo” has become a catch-all phrase for a gilded alternative age. In the contemporary tent, there’s enough room for every denomination of the brooding phenomena. 

Read more: 9 bands commonly mistaken as emo who really aren’t

A key player in the coalescence of meaning by modern fans is Emo Nite. Founded by T.J. Petracca and Morgan Freed in 2014, the all-encompassing brand started as a DJ night from the minds of two scene members who had a profound love for the music that shaped them. Petracca spent his formative years feeling like “there’s nowhere else that I want to be” as he watched bands like Manchester Orchestra from the barricade, while Freed was immersed in the camaraderie of the multi-genre Tucson scene. But their respective passions weren’t shared by club owners in Los Angeles as Petracca and Freed initially pitched the concept of Emo Nite. “We are not doing this. This doesn’t make any sense. We don’t play this type of music in bars and clubs” was a frequent rejection template, recalls Freed. 

After a series of denials, their first event was eventually hosted at an Echo Park haunt for Los Angeles Dodgers fans called Short Stop. Classic Dodgers blue was traded for black, and Short Stop was suddenly wrapped around the block by hoards of emo enthusiasts. While they played out their favorites to an unexpected, feverous crowd, Freed looked at Petracca and said, “We’re doing this in LA, right? This is unheard of. This is crazy.” Little did they know, crazy was an understatement. Within three events, blink-182’s Mark Hoppus was booked, and the floodgates opened for Emo Nite as a citywide sensation — with the Hoppus seal of approval, countless other personal heroes hailing from bands like My Chemical Romance and the Used appeared at Emo Nite in the coming months. The series’ buzz was supercharged.

“We wake up every day and make the choice to decide to be fucking annoying,” Freed drly quips with laughs from Petracca in the background. As Emo Nite has evolved, so has the scope of guests who might not smoothly fit under the alternative banner, to the point that purists might take offense. Yet surprise guest Demi Lovato has evangelized bands in the vein of death-metal outfit Job For A Cowboy, while fellow Emo Nite guest Post Malone infamously tried out for a metalcore band years before pop stardom. Even legendary Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland — who made a recent appearance at Emo Nite — quietly stepped away from nü metal to play with From First to Last in the early 2000s. The lore is deep when it comes to mainstream names’ affiliation with the beloved subgenre, and Emo Nite facilitates the education. 

While the series started out as a love letter to nostalgic favorites, Emo Nite is also working on contemporary tastemaking. Their label imprint Graveboy Records is home to rising indie-pop vocalist Noelle Sucks, who is steadily cultivating an enthusiastic audience. “I think if we didn’t approach it that way, this party would have ended five years ago,” Petracca observes with searing honesty. It might sound punitive to the passing ear, but it’s the truth. Only so many old songs can be played before the lights come on and the nostalgia-suffused night begins to fade. Even when it comes to working with the emo community’s lifelong favorites, Graveboy and Emo Nite have become a home for new music rather than the rehashing of classics. Pop-punk outfit We the Kings and original scene queens Millionaires have released singles via the label that simultaneously recapture the spirit of burned CDs and packed Warped Tour stages while offering something fresh for fans to sink their teeth into.

Alongside championing their favorite artists via Graveboy, Petracca and Freed have stepped out of the emo sphere entirely for inspiration. It was a running joke that the DJ night co-founders weren’t experts on DJing, so they took classes that developed their skills beyond pressing play. The end result was not only more fluid Emo Nite sets, but the development of an electronic-infused party called Grave Rave. Created in tandem with EDC Las Vegas promoters Insomniac, the crossover of emo and EDM (“emotional dance music” as Petracca and Freed cheekily call it) surprisingly works. “When we went to EDC for the first time, I started to take pictures, and then I just put my phone away because it was like I was actually living in the present and experiencing how I felt,” Freed reflects. “I think that both communities have that very similar feeling.” To the many emo-turned-electronic listeners who followed From First to Last’s Sonny Moore as he morphed into dubstep trailblazer Skrillex, they’d likely agree.

As Emo Nite celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a two-day extravaganza across Los Angeles this weekend, Freed and Petracca contemplate a decade of working together at the center of the emo revival. From Petracca’s perspective, helping bring emo to otherwise untouched spaces is a point of pride. “Our scene was never invited to the party,” Petracca affirms. “We were the ones who were able to kick down the door and bring this type of music to Coachella… that felt good to me.” For Freed, the most important takeaway from Emo Nite’s role in the overarching genre comeback is a bit more immaterial. In 2024, anyone on the street could now tell you what emo means. “Ten years ago, I don’t think many people [knew],” Freed remarks. “It was a really niche group of people, and the more people that are exposed to this, the more significantly positive their lives can change.” 

When asked what they might be reflecting on another decade down the road, Freed is endearingly straightforward. “If you were to ask T.J. and I what this is going to look like in 10 years, 10 years ago? There’s no fucking way that we would ever be able to pinpoint this moment. What I can say is that we’re gonna take the next right indicated step for what’s best for our culture, our scene, and our community. We’re gonna do our best to do that. And where that takes us, who knows, man? It’s exciting and cool because we get the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.”