They’d disbanded five years ago, yet as bands are wont to do, decided they couldn’t keep apart for too long, and here we are in 2017 and Thursday are on the road again. They stopped off at the iconic Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, in the thick of a 24-venue tour of the United States, to treat the locals to a greatest-hits show. What else could the set be – no new material has been forthcoming. What they lacked in new songs, they made up for with verve and energy, as if the intervening years had merely been spent in hibernation.
Things got political, as one would expect from a Thursday show, from the off, the band performing under their signature logo, flanked by two slogans; “REFUGEES WELCOME HERE” and “PROTECT IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES.” Calling attention to this between songs, vocalist Geoff Rickly mentioned it was easy in places like LA and New York to say this and get a clap, but that they were going to hit some cities where the sentiments wouldn’t be so easily applauded. But, he went on to say, “if that shit offends you, then you should have been offended by our music for YEARS.” Quite true.
Thursday are loud, there’s no disputing that, and the band did their best to lift the roof off the venue. Pretty much all their fan-favorites were covered, and received raucously. “Cross Out the Eyes,” “Signals Over The Air” and “War All The Time” were particularly well-received. Hardly able to believe the song was released over a decade ago, Rickly introduced “Division Street” with a degree of incredulousness, stating “Yet we’re all only 22, how did that happen?” before sending the fans into raptures.
There was a degree of just how much of a personal journey it has been for the band, Rickly being particularly candid, revealing that this was the first tour they’d been on where he’d managed to stay sober, before expressing solidarity with anyone suffering from addictions and their associated demons. Then he launched into set-closer “Turnpike Divides,” and they vanished into the night, leaving behind an exhausted, appeased audience. There’s life in the old dog, yet.
Set List:
01. For the Workforce, Drowning
02. The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (Of Control)
03. Cross Out the Eyes
04. Beyond the Visible Spectrum
05. Autobiography Of A Nation
06. Counting 5-4-3-2-1
07. A Hole in The World
08. Signals Over The Air
09. Jet Black New Year
10. This Song Brought to You by a Falling Bomb
11. Division Street
12. Sparks Against The Sun
13. No Answers
14. Understanding in a Car Crash
–encore–
15. War All The Time
16. Turnpike Divides
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