Nonpoint blows the walls off the Hawthorne

It seems that 2022 is going to be the year for live music to make it’s big comeback. There are so many bands currently on the road it might be hard to decide which ones you need to get out and see. Well, we’re here to try to make that decision a little easier on you.

Nonpoint. You’re welcome.

Currently on the west coast leg of their “Taken Apart and Put Back Together” tour, they rocked Portland’s Hawthorne theater. Unapologetic, and unrestrained, the boys from Florida played a hard-hitting set that kept the crowd engaged and jumping for most of the evening. Portland knows Nonpoint and it seems like Nonpoint might have Portland figured out too. Opening the set was “Ruthless”, bringing grit, attitude, and energy into the already pumped up crowd. A perfect way to get re-aquainted. Playing just over a dozen songs, the band kept the pace until the final track. During “Breaking Skin”, nearly two-thirds of the way through the set, you could have killed the mics because the whole venue was singing along.

Although the crowd was yelling “Phil Collins” and “In the Air”, the band stayed true to their setlist, not playing any of their incredible covers in Portland.

Near the end of the set, lead singer Elias Soriano yelled for the crowd to “put your guns in the air”. The band quickly reminded him that he was a bit premature, to which he laughed and said, “this one’s called Miracle”. Then, it was truly time as Elias asked again for everyone to put their guns in the air for “Bullet With a Name”.

Given the current political climate and sensitivity about firearm issues, some bands might have stood up there and made apologies about how the song was written before any of tragedies we’ve all read and heard about. Nonpoint was not about that. Nonpoint came to do one thing, and that was to play loud, hard-hitting metal for their fans in Portland. Mission accomplished.