Thursday at the Phoenix; Sunday February 13, 2011

I have loved Thursday since the tenth grade around the release of their now ancient album War All The Time. 2011 marked the ten year of their album released just before War All The Time called Full Collapse. Yesterday's show was absolutely stunning, or as stunning as a punk rock show could be.

I felt like I walked into a time warp (pun intended) with the crowd that I was surrounded by at the show. It was kind of fun to see all the punk kids again. I really loved the intensity that so many had for the material off of Full Collapse. I found myself looking to the bustling mosh pit to find people throwing their arms up with excitement for tunes that I loved too.

I wasn't sure how they'd approach their anniversary gigs. But as I hoped they played the album through and through, "start to finish, cover to cover" as lead singer Geoff Rickly exclaimed. It was kind of fun to see this band live - very charismatic and full of energy. Rickly is comfortable with his movements on stage. It's kind of remarkable when you think about how he used to be called Tone Geoff (hinting at his inability to ever sing the right note, as in Tone Deaf).

"There was one night in Buffalo when we played to five hundred people on a bill with pop/punk bands and we just did it like we were playing the basement. It was really visceral and really raw. I think that when people started talking about us. [Full Collapse] Our record came out right after that, in April 2001, and the first week it sold eight hundred copies. All of our shows from that point on were like real hardcore shows - kids up front pointing their fingers and singing along. There was a real unified energy. The kids were testifying to our music like it's a life-affirming experience. It was a massive response I never would have predicted-the crowd coming up in a wave when we went on. It was so intense, so genuinely emotional. That's the power of music right there, to listen to a band and realise that you're not the only one that feels something."

- Geoff Rickly interviewed in 2002, drawn from Nothing Feels Good by Andy Greenwald

It's funny reading that after I wrote what I did above. Geoff said that just after the release of Full Collapse, he was only twenty-three!

"Victory really wanted us to do a Saves the Day tour. We didn't think we were anything like them, but they're cool guys - they used to play our basement. at the time it seemed like they were the pinnacle of what an indie band could be. They had gone from our basement in New Brunswick to this impossible place. Even though we're coming out a similar tradition as a lot of these so-called emo bands - they lifestyle, the social aspects, the sing-alongs - I felt like we were quite different. Our intention is to try and find different textures, to deal with the collective conscious more than just being 'I, I, I.' When we played to their crowds we got an amazing reaction. THat was when we started to realise that maybe something bigger was going on. After that, when we went on tour by ourselves, our audience was a lot younger and a lot less familiar with punk. We had always hated the word emo, the condescending nature of it towards other music. It seemed so shortsighted. It's very possible that we're part of this thing that's bigger than us and we just don't see it." (Greenwald, 2003)

"This band has exceeded any expectations I ever had for it and did so awhile ago. so at this point all I can do is try and figure out the best decision I can make for us in the moment. do things in a way that seems right. not limit anything, but always try to be honest and positive.... Who knows where it can go from here?" (Greenwald, 2003)

This is my third time seeing Thursday in the last two years, fifth overall. It's really depressing to think about how the crowd has changed from when I first saw them in 2004 to the state it is in now. Last night's show really showed how important the co-headliner choice is. The majority of people were definitely there for Underoath who was to come on the stage after Thursday. Geoff Rickly acknowledged that this was the best show they've had in Toronto in a while. Previously, I had saw them at the Mod Club and before that at the Kool Haus - to empty crowds of people who either didn't care or weren't into it. Such a change of energy from the first show I saw of theirs at the Kool Haus, their headliner. I felt as though I couldn't breathe because I was squished so hard to the front. Maybe that's what Rickly was talking about, that raw energy they used to have. Regardless of what they used to have, he was very grateful that there was even interest in the album ten years later. He spoke for the entire band recognising that never in their wildest dreams did they think that they would be able to play Full Collapse. Love the modesty.

I realised how little I actually knew off of this album. I mean, I recognised all the tunes and was familiar with them, but Full Collapse wasn't the album that I really gelled with. I really adored War All The Time, when they tour that album in its entirety in 2013, i'll be at the heart of the crowd no questions.

It was really cool to hear "Standing on the Edge of Summer" and "Wind Up," two songs I have never heard them play. They also played the intro and outro bits which I thought was pretty exciting.

They closed with a new tune off of an album they're releasing at the end of the 2011.

I've been also racking my brain thinking about how Thursday did a tune with Tim Kasher. How did they meet? Apparently, Greta Cohen played on the War All The Time tune "Steps Ascending." Not certain that's how they met, but i'm that much closer to figuring it out.