Downtown Lawrence on a Friday night is an experience in itself. The bars are open, the restaurants are packed and there are at least six sidewalk musicians every block. Take all of that and add over 100 emo kids waiting to do nothing but party together, and the night is bound to be a good one.

Emo Nite LA started two years ago in a small bar in Echo Park, California, and made its way all the way to LFK. Emo Nite –and yes, it’s spelled like that –is not a concert and the three people who put it on are not DJ’s. As their social media puts it so well, they throw parties for the music they love.

After two or three songs and we all got comfortable with each other, Morgan Freed, one of the co-directors of Emo Nite, reiterated that this isn’t a show and we need to get our butts on the stage with them and party. And the crowd delivered. By the tens of us, people who had been casted out as weirdos, people who felt alone and found solace in the music crowded together on the tiny stage of The Granada, and we partied. Hard.

There is no perfect way to describe the energy of the room that night. Kids with colored hair in too tight jeans and heavy makeup all crowding together and feeding off of each other’s energy, screaming the lyrics to songs that have gotten us all through one tough time or another. Complete strangers were connecting and creating friendships over something we all love, something so much bigger than all of us. This was a room filled with people who never had somewhere to fit into, people who have all felt alone and found meaning in these lyrics, and that feeling, that moment is one that cannot be described in 500 words or less.

Personally, I feel rejuvenated after a night of screaming my favorite songs at the top of my lungs. Emo music has always been for the sad kids and for getting those emotions out. After spending months of keeping those emotions in, keeping all the anger and sadness and whatever other emotions people aren’t allowed to show in the real world, letting them all out with like minded people was cathartic.

If you’re a weirdo like me and Emo Nite returns to Lawrence, please do not miss this chance to party with people who are just like you. I made friends that I know I will continue to keep in touch with and see at shows in the future, and that’s something that isn’t always as easy as it is at Emo Nite. Thank you Morgan, thank you TJ, thank you Babs, thank you Emo Nite.