Review: Thursday – Full Collapse

Thursday - Full Collapse

It seems like just yesterday I was discovering this “new band” my college roommate told me about called Thursday. The first song he played for me was “Understanding in a Car Crash,” and I was immediately drawn into the world of the post-hardcore/emo blend of magic that Thursday were able to accomplish on their sophomore record, Full Collapse. This album seemed destined to be huge, and had so many things going for it upon its release. For starters, the album was released during the so-called “golden age” of emo, with so many legendary bands releasing music during this time period. Secondly, Thursday were graced with a talented, energetic, and captivating front-man in the form of Geoff Rickly, who is now seen as a bona fide legend in our scene. Lastly, Thursday were brilliant at creating larger than life guitar hooks courtesy of their dual-attack by Tom Keeley and Steve Padulla. Rounding out the band were the ultra-talented bass player Tim Payne, and drummer Tucker Rule who were all up to the task of stepping up to the plate to create this legendary album. Full Collapse is a raw, visceral, post-punk blend of hardcore elements packaged for the masses, while still remaining endearing enough for longtime fans of Thursday to reminisce on discovering this band they had in their back pocket. This album would launch Thursday directly into the mainstream of emo bands on the tips of every tongue mentioning an influential band during this time period, and not to mention record executives falling over themselves to sign them to a major label. As much as has been written about the labels associated with Thursday, its more important to look at how the music from this album has stood the test of time.

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Geoff Rickly Shares Recovery Story

Thursday

Geoff Rickly of Thursday talks to The Ties That Bind Us about recovering from addiction:

Until he got clean in 2016, shortly before Thursday returned after a five-year hiatus, Rickly spent the last several years of his addiction trying desperately to salvage his personal life while putting on a professional front that still managed to move forward. He joined No Devotion, a Welsh alternative bound formed from the ashes of Lostprophets, in 2014 and signed the band to his Collect Records label. Whatever success he enjoyed, however, was eclipsed by the growing realization that his drug problem was slowly consuming everything.

“The last few years of using heroin, of course I wanted to stop, but it was literally impossible,” he said. “They tell you (in recovery) to take it a day at a time, and I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to make it another 10 minutes. What are you talking about?’ It was so hard to imagine having to be without the thing that made me feel like a person, because unless I got really high, I didn’t really feel connected to people. If I wasn’t high, every sensation, every thought, was another expression of unbearable pain. Spiritually, I was so empty.”

‘We’re Not Gonna Do It Man. We Can’t. We Quit.’

Luke O’Neil talked with a variety of artists, including Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, Riley from Thrice, and Geoff from Thursday about their lowest moments being in a band:

It definitely tests your mettle. I think the biggest thing is, the things you learn from being in band are, well, problem solving is close to the top of that list. What are you going to do if you’re stranded in Germany? What are you going to do when your battery dies on the van and you’re in the middle of the West Texas desert and you have to get to the show the next day? I think without times like that you don’t learn those lessons and you break down. But we just kind of leaned on each other a little bit and said ok let’s fucking figure it out. We can either quit or figure it out.