Thursday’s fall tour rolled into New York City on a chilly Sunday night in the Lower East Side with support from The Fall of Troy, Young Widows, Moving Mountains, and locals Kiss Kiss. The third date on a tour that extends until the end of October, the performances and setlists are quite similar to the first night of the tour in Philadelphia. This review is a brief supplement to the lengthy and detailed review of the September 18 date, so please read that first before continuing on.
Though Kiss Kiss opened the show, Moving Mountains was the first band I caught. The New York natives sounded excellent, reaching back to their 2007 debut, Pneuma, while also playing a large portion of new songs.
Young Widows began with “Took a Turn” and moved through Old Wounds, tossing in some brand new songs along the way. The band sounded good, receiving a fairly warm response from a crowd most certainly being introduced to the Kentucky trio for the first time.
The Fall of Troy performed well during their thirty minute set which found guitarist and frontman Thomas Erak frantically shredding through most of the band’s discography. Much like in Philadelphia, however, vocals took a backseat to Erak’s blazing guitar abilities.
The New Jersey six-piece took the stage next; on frontman Geoff Rickly’s queue, Thursday exploded with “For the Workforce, Drowning” and rolled through the first three War All the Time tracks. “Division St.” was dedicated to Ben Lazar, an Island Records staff member who pushed Thursday to write that song (and others, including “Signals Over the Air”), after feeling that War All the Time was initially incomplete.
A City by the Light Divided‘s lead-off (“The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (of Control)”) followed before a string of Full Collapse cuts found the band digging back to 2001. “The Lower East Side is a vector, a needle that we all must cross,” sang Rickly on “Paris in Flames”, echoing through the Lower East Side’s Bowery Ballroom.
Back-to-back politically charged anthems (“Autobiography of a Nation”, “Friends in the Armed Forces”) sparked Rickly to comment on America’s war (to which a fan responded “which one, we’re in four”, sparking a high-five from Rickly), and indeed America itself. Rickly explained that his love for America stems from Americans fighting for what they believe in, not blindly following every widely-accepted belief, and standing up against what is clearly wrong.
After an excellent performance of Common Existence‘s “Circuits of Fever”, the band finished the first part of their set with “Sugar in the Sacrament”, returning with “Love Has Led Us Astray” to begin their encore. During the band’s final song, “Jet Black New Year”, the crowd erupted and the stage was filled with stage dives and singalongs. The full set:
For the Workforce, Drowning
Between Rupture and Rapture
Division St.
The Other Side Of The Crash/Over and Out (of Control)
Paris in Flames
Understanding in a Car Crash
Autobiography of a Nation
Friends in the Armed Forces
Beyond the Visible Spectrum
Signals Over the Air
Circuits of Fever
Sugar in the Sacrament
Love Had Let Us Astray
Jet Black New Year
Bowery Ballroom fit the tour nicely, allowing an intimate performance with a strong house sound. In comparison to the band’s date just two days prior at First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, the Bowery Ballroom sounded much better and allowed for more room and a less packed crowd. Thursday sounded great during their hour-long performance, but unfortunately played the exact same set as two nights before. The band returns to Bowery Ballroom on October 25 to perform Full Collapse.
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