Slam Dunk present FREE THROW

Slam Dunk present

FREE THROW

plus guests

Wednesday 8th July 2026

Newcastle University Students Union

Doors 7pm

Since forming in 2012, FREE THROW’s story has been simple: keep going. New records,

longer tours, bigger rooms – it’s always been another step upward for the Nashville-based

quintet, whose 2014 debut, Those Days Are Gone, has become an era-defining classic in the

emo-punk genre, launching them onto global tours with Hot Mulligan and New Found Glory and

slots at Slam Dunk, Riot Fest, and The Fest. Every milestone has pushed them ahead, but on

their sixth LP, Moments Before The Wind (Wax Bodega), that constant charge gradually slows,

suspended mid-step, mid-thought, mid-life.

Recorded with longtime producer Brett Romnes on either end of the sold-out Those Days Are

Gone 10-year tour, the follow-up to 2023’s Lessons That We Swear To Keep chronicles a

surrealist descent into liminality: a period of intense personal upheaval colored by loss, renewal,

reflection, and, ultimately, life-altering joy through the impending birth of a child. The 11-song set

is disarmingly real, colored by sonic spontaneity – a swirl of Midwest emo, sweat-soaked punk

fervor, and crashing alternative rock – but also the sort of achingly vulnerable lyricism fans and

critics have come to expect from the band. Through it all, Moments finds Free Throw still

moving, still growing, but now, perhaps more than ever, acutely aware that the path ahead is

neither straight nor obvious. There’s a quiet confidence guiding them there into a brand-new

era, ready for whatever the wind blows their way.