Show Review: Free Throw Live in Philadelphia
By Erika Szumel
PHILADELPHIA – On a Saturday night in the City of Brotherly Love, music lovers came together to celebrate an energetic group of bands—wakelee, TRSH, Macseal, and the headliner, Free Throw. The show was held at Union Transfer on Spring Garden Street and had a strong presence of attendees from the early evening through the night.
Starting off the night was wakelee, an indie rock band born in Brooklyn in 2019. It fuses power chords, big pop punk hooks, and intimate acoustics and lyrics throughout its discography. These blend together in many songs, including mildlyinteresting off their EP released in 2025, titled Doghouse.
TRSH hails from Springfield, Missouri, creating music that is categorically Midwest emo, with elements of lo-fi, strained vocals, and the anxious, sad boy aesthetic and lyrics. This band is geographically a Midwest favorite, but it has die-hard fans on the East Coast, too. At Union Transfer, the energy picked up in the room, the pit started to form, and the invigorated dancing was contagious. The lead singer’s vocals were striking, rough, and passionate, especially during songs such as Drown Me In A Bathtub Filled With Wingstop Ranch, Taco Tuesday, and Dad Rock.
By the time Macseal took the stage, the crowd was energized and ready to start crowdsurfing and moshing. The indie rock band from Long Island mixes “hooky emo with math rock smarts,” according to their Spotify profile. The best way to describe their sound is sunny Midwest Emo that combines upbeat rhythms and heartfelt lyrics such as, “I hate that I still care about caring too much,” on 5:45 a.m. (Not Fun), or “I fell a thousand feet, and I landed in my bed, next time I’ll try to go higher, and maybe I’ll land in yours instead," on Sandbox. During this set, the energy simply exploded in the room with dancing, moshing, and crowdsurfing.
Opening with Missing No., Free Throw made a killer entrance with a song off of their latest album, Moments Before The Wind, released March 27. Free Throw produces sounds with Midwest emo, pop punk, and post-hardcore elements. The room felt absolutely electric as the band played seven songs from the new album as well as a handful of other crowd favorites including Two Beers In and Tongue Tied. Established in 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee, this group of artists have clearly learned the art of performing—there’s an effortless energy that they exude in the spotlight. Crowdsurfers were coming in left and right, shoes were flying off, and the band maintained the crazy, emo energy. They closed the show with the repeating lines and chords of Hey Ken, Someone Methodically Mushed the Donuts, a favorite track that has racked up 13.4 million streams on Spotify.
As a thoughtful note midway through the set, band members and fans sang Happy Birthday to Cory Castro, lead singer of Free Throw, with a cake and candles. The emo scene can be really sweet sometimes.
