Still Thursday
A Decade-long Dialogue of Punk Continues

By Dominick Scala

Defining music is so relative to each listener’s perspective, mood, attitude, experience.

I ass-u-me that the reason we even attempt to categorize music into ‘genres’ is for a general often (mis)understanding of an artist that we have not heard yet. Thursday is yet another band difficult to label. Some call it post-hardcore, screamo, or new-prog. Personally, I fancy post-punk to describe the five piece outfit that formed in 1997 and literally rose from the basements of New Brunswick, New Jersey, although it was almost by accident. They have taken punk rock to a cerebral level of interaction with their fans. I was able to catch their San Francisco show and chat it up with singer Geoff Rickly.

In between songs last night you described punk as an interaction of ideas.
Yeah well, the scene that we grew up in was the DIY basement scene and I used to help put on those shows. Everybody that came out was somehow involved in them, kind of like the artists and fans (friends) were all equals. There were no stages and I think punk, at best, maintains that ethos. Even when there is a stage, and if it gets bigger, punk should be a dialogue, not just a one-sided soapbox type of thing.

Why start a band in the first place?
Just so we could play the basement shows I was doing. For three years, we had local bands and bands from out of town like Hot Water Music, Reversal of Man, Poison the Well and At the Drive In, that would come through [town] and we just wanted to be a part of it. Then it just spiraled out of control, like we felt that some of the songs we wrote were kind of cool, so we made a demo. Then Alex from Eyeball records was like “you guys should write a full length.” So we did. Then the label was like, “oh you guys should tour now.”

You now have seven full-length albums. What was your inspiration lyrically the new “Common Existence?”
The new record is influenced by literature more so than the others, which were influenced by other lyric writers, artists and even movies.

You’ve been doing this now for over a decade and it seems you still attract a young crowd.
I can’t believe it man. We have a whole new generation of fans that ‘get’ us, and a lot of times I’ll run into our older fans on the street and they are still totally down with the band even though they can’t make it to the show because of work or whatever. It’s all gone a lot further than I ever thought it would.

What are you listening to these days?
Um, the new PJ Harvey and John Parish record — that’s really great. We come out every night to that Soul Savers song, I love them, and there is this new band from Brooklyn I’m just crazy about called Midnight Masses. The band that opened for us: Touche Amore. I love their record, I gotta be honest though, I put that record out, but I love them, that’s why I put it out.

Thursday will perform at 6 p.m. on Oct. 20 at Revolution Live, 200 W. Broward Blvd., in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $14. Call 954-727-0950 or visit jointherevolution.net for more info.

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