New Jersey post-hardcore band Thursday covered Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 hit “Dancing In The Dark” for Two Minutes to Late Night. It was recorded for Andy Bustillos, who previously appeared on the metal talk show as ‘2005 Scene Kid,’ since he has been diagnosed with Stage 3C germ cell testicular cancer.

The cover is fairly faithful to the original, but Thursday still makes it their own. The guitar playing is more atmospheric, screeching out where the classic colors between the lines. The drums are a bit slower, making the recording sound like a slow-motion scene from an ‘80s movie, especially during the extended outro. The bass pops in typical post-hardcore fashion. Frontman Geoff Rickly’s vocals reach notes in a way that make his emo background clear. Two Minutes to Late Night host Gwarsenio Hall joined on keys, playing more closely to the original than the band.

Hall started the video off with an intro, explaining that “Dancing In The Dark” is one of Bustillos’ favorite songs, and Thursday his favorite band. While Hall only mentioned that Bustillos has been having a rough time, a GoFundMe that was set up for Bustillos’ treatment goes into more detail on the cancer, which has reportedly spread to his liver, lung and lymph nodes. He recently flew back from LA to Queens, NY to be with his family, and he is going to need more chemo treatments and surgery to fight the disease.

Thursday reunited in 2017 after Rickly put a pause on the band in 2012 to focus on recovering from heroin and opiate addiction, which he opened up about recently. They played a series of livestream concerts throughout 2020 including a virtual emo festival, a Minecraft festival, and three special shows, Signals V1, Signals V2 and Signals V3, the last of which celebrated the 20th anniversary of their second album, Full Collapse, and the 10th anniversary of their 2011 album, No Devolución. The band’s drummer Tucker Rule collaborated on one of Two Minutes to Late Night’s previous covers, a rendition of Annie Lennox’s “Walking on Broken Glass.” 

Some of the talk shows other recent covers include a version of Björk’s “Hyperballad,” a ‘90s club songs medley, The Rolling Stones’ “Rocks Off,” Pantera’s “Mouth for War,” Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas,” Anthrax’s “Caught in a Mosh” and many more. The “Dancing in the Dark” cover is the show’s 40th in total since they began the covers series at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, featuring a ton of famous metal-adjacent musicians.

Photo credit: Marv Watson