Thursday

Thursday emerged in 1997 from New Brunswick, New Jersey, as a key force in the post-hardcore movement that defined the early years of the new century. Fronted by vocalist Geoff Rickly, the original roster featured bassist Tim Payne, drummer Tucker Rule, and guitarists Steve Pedulla and Tom Keeley. Their first release, Waiting, came out in 1999 on the New York indie Eyeball Records; soon afterward the group moved to Chicago’s Victory label and delivered Full Collapse in 2001. Support tours with Boy Sets Fire and Sparta helped push that album to number 178 on the Billboard 200. Persistent road work and raw intensity built a devoted following, landing Thursday on the main stage of the 2002 Warped Tour and earning MTV airplay for the single “Understanding in a Car Crash.”

Following that breakthrough, the band signed with Island Records yet still put out the 2002 live EP Five Stories Falling on Victory to tide fans over until the major-label debut. War All the Time arrived in September 2003, drawing widespread praise for its reflections on 9/11, intimate songwriting, and restless, genre-blending take on post-hardcore. Keyboardist Andrew Everding, who contributed to the record, was subsequently made a permanent member. Heavy touring, however, strained internal relationships and personal well-being; Rickly also received an epilepsy diagnosis, and adverse reactions to medication produced a harrowing moment when he began coughing up blood onstage at California’s Coachella Festival in May 2004, forcing an early end to the set. Once recovered, the group completed a full U.K. run and honored their remaining summer commitments, including what they planned as a farewell appearance on Warped Tour.

Tensions eased during those festival dates as the musicians rediscovered enjoyment in performing, prompting them to continue. After a period of rest, they entered the studio with producer Dave Fridmann (the Flaming Lips, Mogwai) and issued A City by the Light Divided in May 2006, an album Rickly later called “the album that almost never was.” They promoted it with dates supporting the Shirts for a Cure charity. Early the next year Thursday severed ties with Island, scrapped most scheduled shows, and captured two New Jersey performances whose excerpts appeared on the Victory Records CD/DVD package Kill the House Lights in October 2007.

A split release with the Japanese band Envy surfaced in late 2008, the same year the group signed with Epitaph Records. Reuniting with Fridmann, Thursday recorded Common Existence, which fused their post-hardcore foundation with fresh indie-rock and new-wave textures; the album reached stores in early 2009, after which they joined the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour. In 2010 they returned to Tarbox Road Studio to begin work on another project with Fridmann, resulting in the sixth studio album, No Devolución, released in 2011.

In November 2011 Thursday declared an indefinite hiatus, later confirmed by Rickly in 2013 as a permanent breakup. Five years afterward, a remastered edition of the debut Waiting appeared on Rickly’s own Collect Records label. In 2016 cryptic social-media posts reignited speculation, and the band formally announced its reunion that March.