Extended Pain: thrown Brings Their Relentless Aggression to Tampa
The Orpheum in Tampa, FL is always a roll of the dice. The outdoor stage is great for live music when the weather cooperates, with an outside bar, plenty of seating, and a barricade that lets photographers get up close without fighting through the crowd.
The indoor stage is a different story. The stage is low, the room is cramped, the lighting is less than ideal, and moving around means mixing it up with the crowd. You never know which stage a band will play until the day of the show.
On paper, a band as electric as thrown seems like a perfect fit for the spacious outdoor stage. But sometimes, there’s nothing better than being in the middle of the hornet's nest, surrounded by crowd surfing, stage diving, and spin kicks galore.
HALF ME
Opening up the night was metalcore up-and-comers Half Me out of Hamburg, Germany. These guys were super tight, and with a lot of their songs coming in under the 3-minute mark, they were able to blast through a metric ton of material. This was super refreshing for an opener, as it allowed the band to really set the tone while also exposing the crowd to a lot of different tracks, including some new songs.
It’s always great when an opener comes out of the gates absolutely swinging for the fences, and Half Me delivered. These guys have been on an absolute tear lately, and with their upcoming album, Dogma, out at the end of the month, I can see them being one of the next big names in modern metalcore.
BOLTCUTTER
Next on the night were slam masterminds out of Eugune, Oregon, Boltcutter. Slam is having a bit of a moment in 2026, and Boltcutter is really making a name for themself. Within the first 30 seconds of the first song, someone had taken to the stage to launch themselves like a 200lb missile that took out the entire left side of the crowd, and that really set the tone for the rest of their set.
From how rowdy the crowd got, it was safe to say that they were enjoying the heaviest band of the evening. Boltcutter debuted some unreleased material, as well as playing through some of their more popular tracks such as ‘Richless & Bitchless’, ‘Ballpeen Bludgeoning’, and ‘Peterbilt Homicide’. Vocalist Tristen Storm came out donning a pair of ‘Boltcutter’ branded sunglasses, emanating an unrivaled aura. Slam has never been more back, and I am really here for it.
NORMA JEAN
Norma Jean need no introduction. They’ve been doing it since the early 2000’s, with their 2002 debut ‘Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child’ being a landmark release and hugely influential to the burgeoning metalcore scene.
It’s been almost two decades since I saw Norma Jean live, and it’s honestly both equally mindblowing and unsurprising that they continue to play with the same level of intensity. The band opened up with three tracks from their most recent albums, 2019’s ‘All Hail’ and 2022’s ‘Deathrattle Sing to Me’ before dipping into their back catalog with ‘The End of All Things Will Be Televised’. It might not be 2006 anymore, but hearing ‘the south is on fire’ chanted over and over again still hits just as hard as it did 20 years ago.
Before their set, I felt that Norma Jean's spot on this tour was a little out of place. The rest of the bands are full of guys half their ages, and the crowd skewed even younger. But I was totally wrong. Not only do these guys still bring it at full force, but the crowd was going absolutely mental the entire time, singing and screaming along to every song. It really did feel like I was transported back in time.
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to still be perfecting your craft after 20 years, but Norma Jean proved they are not resting on their laurels, with most of the setlist being songs released after 2010. This is a band that is still pumping out great music and making sure the world knows it.
thrown
Headlining the show were Swedish nu metalcore titans thrown (intentionally stylized in lowercase). Often lumped into a genre referred to as ‘pissed-core’, the name is pretty funny, but it makes perfect sense. These Swedes are mad as hell, and you’re coming along for the ride.
The band opened with ‘grayout’ and the crowd went absolutely ballistic. By the time the band got through ‘guilt’ and ‘parasite’, I had already been jumped on twice. These shows are always an exercise in reaction time, both in capturing the band members on stage and keeping your head on a swivel to make sure a dude in a banana suit doesn’t land on top of your head. The crowd was rowdy, but they were absolutely loving every second of it.
Short song times were again a common theme, with most of thrown’s catalog clocking in under 2 and a half minutes, so they were able to burn through music at a supersonic rate. There are very few shows I’ve seen at The Orpheum that have been able to match the type of energy that thrown was bringing, and the crowd was giving that energy right back.
After all was said and done, thrown ended up getting through 16 songs in under an hour, including material off of their highly anticipated upcoming album ‘UNWANTED’. They brought a little bit of everything for everyone, and they breezed through it in record time.
This was absolutely a night to remember at The Orpheum, with few shows in recent memory being able to match the energy that thrown and the rest of the bands brought with them. The crowd deserves a good pat on the back because they absolutely made the most of the inside stage, as the energy would have been totally different without the claustrophobic environment.