Some concert lineups are worth attending for the headliner alone. Others manage to assemble such a strong collection of artists that missing the opening set feels like missing part of the show. When Free Throw and Microwave brought their co-headlining tour to Boulder Theater on Friday, October 16, they delivered the latter.
With Carly Cosgrove and Flycatcher rounding out the bill, this was easily one of the strongest complete lineups I’ve photographed this year. There wasn’t a disappointing performance in the bunch, and each band brought enough individuality to make the evening feel like a carefully assembled celebration of modern emo and alternative rock.
I had an added reason to be excited. Recently, I got the chance to photograph Carly Cosgrove headlining The Globe in Denver and Free Throw headlining Summit Music Hall. Both shows left strong impressions, and getting to see those bands again alongside Microwave and Flycatcher made this tour particularly appealing.
Flycatcher opened the evening, and it quickly became apparent that arriving early was the right decision. The New Jersey band’s music pulls from the more melodic and introspective side of alternative rock, with an understated quality that makes the louder moments feel earned.
Tracks like “Sodas in the Freezer” help illustrate the band’s appeal. Their songwriting has a conversational quality that feels personal without being overly precious, balancing textured guitars with melodies that stick around long after the music stops.
Flycatcher were an excellent introduction to the night and a reminder that some of the most rewarding discoveries happen before the better-known bands take the stage. Their performance made me want to spend more time with their catalog, which is about the best compliment I can give an opener.
Carly Cosgrove followed, bringing a welcome dose of personality and unpredictability to the evening. I’ve been particularly fond of this band since photographing their headlining performance at The Globe earlier this year, where they transformed a packed room into a chaotic, genuinely joyful celebration of emo.
The band’s music has always occupied a wonderfully strange intersection of emotional vulnerability and absurd humor. Their arrangements are full of sharp turns, intricate guitar parts, and rhythms that feel constantly on the verge of breaking apart before snapping back into place.
That character runs throughout songs like “Don’t Lick The Swingset” and “Headaches,” where the band’s restless musical instincts complement writing that can be funny, vulnerable, and genuinely affecting.
Seeing Carly Cosgrove again reinforced how much I appreciate their approach. There’s an unmistakable playfulness to their music, but the musicianship underneath it deserves equal attention. They’ve managed to preserve the emotional honesty that makes emo resonate while embracing the stranger, less predictable possibilities within the genre.
Microwave took the stage third, bringing a heavier and considerably darker musical perspective. The Atlanta band has spent more than a decade building one of the most compelling catalogs in alternative rock, moving from the raw emotional urgency of Stovall and Much Love toward the abrasive experimentation of Death Is a Warm Blanket and the atmospheric songwriting of Let’s Start Degeneracy.
What makes Microwave particularly interesting is their refusal to settle into one musical identity. Nathan Hardy’s songwriting can be uncomfortable and brutally self-aware, but the arrangements give those emotions a remarkable amount of space. A song can shift from something delicate and reflective into an abrasive wall of sound without sacrificing the thread holding it together.
Listening to songs like “Lighterless” alongside newer material such as “Omni” reveals just how extensively the band has developed their sound. Their willingness to experiment has opened up new possibilities without erasing the emotional directness of their earlier work.
Microwave’s performance was a particular highlight, and their placement immediately before Free Throw worked beautifully. The bands approach similar emotional territory from different directions, with Microwave leaning toward darker textures and unexpected arrangements while Free Throw favor a more urgent, openly cathartic style.
There is also a direct musical connection between the headliners. In 2025, Free Throw released a re-recorded version of “What Day Is It, October?” featuring Microwave’s Nathan Hardy, making their shared tour feel particularly fitting. It’s a small but meaningful example of how interconnected this community of musicians has become.
Free Throw closed the evening, returning to Colorado just six months after I photographed their headlining show at Summit Music Hall in Denver. That performance was one of my favorite examples this year of how powerful live emo can be when a band and its audience share the same emotional investment in the music.
The Nashville band has developed an unmistakable sound built around Cory Castro’s emotionally exposed vocals, intricate guitar work, and explosive shifts in intensity. Their songwriting has a roughness that feels deliberate, allowing imperfections and emotional contradictions to remain part of the experience.
Earlier material, particularly Those Days Are Gone, helped establish Free Throw as one of the defining bands of modern emo. Songs like “Two Beers In” have become lasting favorites because they capture familiar feelings with such immediacy. The frustration, nostalgia, humor, and self-reflection are all tangled together in a way that feels unmistakably human.
That emotional vocabulary has continued to develop through the band’s subsequent releases, including their sixth full-length album, Moments Before The Wind. The record finds Free Throw examining change and uncertainty with the perspective of a band that has spent years growing alongside its audience.
Tracks like “Floaroma Town” demonstrate how the newer material fits within the band’s established sound while offering a more reflective approach to familiar themes. There is a growing sense of maturity in the writing, though thankfully none of the urgency that made their early music so compelling has disappeared.
Having seen Free Throw twice this year, I’m struck by how naturally their music translates into a live setting. The band’s emotional intensity is inseparable from its musicianship, and the songs carry a sense of immediacy that makes even familiar material feel worthwhile to experience again.
Closing the night also gave Free Throw the opportunity to bring together everything that made this particular lineup work. After Flycatcher’s thoughtful opening, Carly Cosgrove’s restless energy, and Microwave’s darker experimentation, Free Throw provided a fitting conclusion to an evening that explored several different expressions of the same musical community.
What impressed me most was the consistency. There are plenty of tours with a great headliner and perfectly competent support, but this lineup offered four performances worth seeing independently. Every band had a distinct sound, and the differences made the night more interesting.
It was also personally rewarding to revisit Carly Cosgrove and Free Throw after covering their headlining shows earlier in the year. Seeing artists repeatedly gives me a better appreciation for their development and the character of their performances. Both bands continue to justify the attention they’ve earned, and sharing the stage with Microwave and Flycatcher made for an exceptional pairing.
Concert photography by Zack Hartman Photography for The Concert Chronicles.
More From The Concert Chronicles: Carly Cosgrove Turns The Globe Into a Packed Emo Party | Free Throw Delivers a Classic Raw Emo Experience at Summit Music Hall in Denver
Leave a Reply