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I booted the USB on my desktop. It loaded antix to a command line in which I could install antix.

I booted the USB on my laptop with safe mode. It booted to rox-icewm live session.

Why would it boot to different places just because of different hardware?
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But now with safe mode I can use it live on my laptop which is what I wanted, so I'll mark this as solved. Thanks for everyone's responses.

It is because of the hardware.

You could post hardware details.

inxi -Fxz in a terminal

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demo@antix1:~
$ inxi -Fxz
System:
Host: antix1 Kernel: 4.9.212-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 bits: 64
compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: IceWM 1.6.5
Distro: antiX-19.2-runit_x64-full Hannie Schaft 28 March 2020
base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 3558 v: N/A serial: <filter>
Mobo: Dell model: 0PNFDX v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: Dell
v: A19 date: 05/16/2019
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 21.1 Wh condition: 21.6/41.4 Wh (52%)
model: SMP DELL VN3N047E status: Discharging
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-5015U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Broadwell rev: 4 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
bogomips: 16761
Speed: 2001 MHz min/max: 500/2000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2001 2: 2000
3: 1996 4: 2000
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Dell driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: vesa resolution: 1368x768~N/A
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0 256 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0
Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Dell
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.9.212-antix.1-amd64-smp
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wireless 3160 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 4040
bus ID: 06:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Dell RTL810xE driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000
bus ID: 07:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 945.97 GiB used: 43.6 MiB (0.0%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10JPVX-75JC3T0
size: 931.51 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB model: USB DISK 3.0 size: 14.46 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 6.18 GiB used: 40.5 MiB (0.6%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0 C mobo: 38.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Info:
Processes: 163 Uptime: 1m Memory: 7.77 GiB used: 644.1 MiB (8.1%)
Init: runit runlevel: 2 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3
inxi: 3.0.36

This laptop is equipped to run Ubuntu. It has drivers for Ubuntu 12.04 on Dell's website. May be it is kernel problem which Lubuntu 20.04 can handle. I had a dell Inspiron laptop which had Ubuntu preinstalled. Debian liveDVD with non-free firmware didn't even boot on it but MXLinux did. Lubuntu 20.04 is coming after a week. You may give it a try.

This is running live off the USB. I haven't installed it to the harddrive. I did have to boot into safe video mode. Why would antix load Ubuntu drivers?

I didn't mean you should load Ubuntu driver on AntiX. I meant Ubuntu is suitable for this particular laptop model. May be it has custom firmware for your graphics card. If you can boot into safe mode this rules out the possibility of a faulty USB drive. Lubuntu 20.04 stable will be out tomorrow. You should give it a try.It won't hurt.

I'm using void linux on it. No problems and lighting fast.