Free Throw Celebrate 10 Years of ‘Those Days Are Gone’ with Spring Tour and Iconic Openers
Free Throw lead singer, Cory Castro
Carrboro, NC - April 21, 2025
Free Throw, American Emo Band, embarks on their spring tour to commemorate the 10 Year anniversary of the release of their first studio album, Those Days Are Gone. To celebrate the double-digit birthday of Those Days Are Gone, the members played a set heavily consisting of that throwback album, as well as many fan favorites from other Free Throw eras.
The scene is set with the 5 members of the band backlit with intense LED’s, for almost the entirety of the first song, “Such Luck”. These lights are used as a tool to not quite illuminate the members, but to invite the crowd closer as the colorful lights had been pointing to them first. “Two Beers In”, hit song from this album and in my opinion, the most widely recognized song from this group, was showcased second in this packed setlist. While I fully expected this track to be played towards the end of the night, playing this song second was an interesting choice with a high positive impact.
The activity of the crowd during this show was really interesting, I’d like to use the term, ‘polite moshing’ to describe their movements, as it was a pretty electric pit, but mostly in jumping and circling, rather than shoving and crowd surfing. Despite the moshing might not have been as aggressive, the scream-singing and pointing and clapping shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Fun trivia fact; many songs in the band's discography hint at Pokemon references! Some tracks not displayed include Worry Seed, Lavender Town, and Tail Whip. The Pokemon fanatic frontman decided to only showcase one of these Easter eggs; Pallet town.
To close out the night, Hall of Fame-worthy Emo hits dominated the encore. Two of them include “Andy and I, Uh”, and “Now Kith”. The final song of the night included “Randy, I Am the Liquor”. This song playing last was a perfect conclusion to the tour. The band has really grown as people since the album has been released. From breaking out on their first album, new and old members, struggling with mental health and substances, the list goes on. Although they are ages older and mature, their traumas and the lyrics they sing are constant reminders of what they went through, and this will always live in them as they continue to play this music.
This stacked lineup features a Midwestern Emo’s punk fantasy of opening acts. Starting off the night, my personal most-anticipated act of this set, Harrison Gordon. The band plays hit songs like “The Next Great American Spirit Strikes Back”, and my favorite song, “Cigs Inside”, among others. I was generally surprised at the positive reactions and enthusiastic response from the audience; I thought I was aware of this hidden gem on the set list. It turns out that much of the audience is familiar with this incredible band.
Next on the list, the second band of the night is Ben Quad. The boys of Ben Quad have been non-stop touring for the past few months, joining bands such as Microwave, Knuckle Puck, and Prine Daddy and the Hyena for US and International tours. Ben Quad’s audience energy was by far the highest, using well thought out strategies such as movement commands with interaction, and EDM breaks to memes such as the Spinning Cat Meme. Ben Quad was my personal favorite act of the night, despite knowing the least of their set compared to the other two artists.
Ben Quad
Harrison Gordon
Free Throw
Both of the openers, unlike many tours I experience, treat the set like a headline show. Both Ben Quad and Harrison Gordon don’t hold back their true personality, display distinct visual character traits in their performance, and aren’t afraid to go a little crazy. I love that about an opener, and that’s exactly how people fall in love with supporting bands turing carefully crafted lineups like the 10 Year Anniversary tour.
Carrboro was only the third show of the tour, so don’t miss your chance as Free Throw performs in the rest of the United States!
