Thursday has been touring across the U.S with Cursive, The Appleseed Cast, and Nate Bergman. The show made its way to the art apex of Pomona and I was excited to make it back to The Glass House for the first time since it reopened.
I arrived just in time to catch Nate Bergman wallowing into the mic. The solo act oozed charm and put on a powerful performance with the confidence of a full band. If you have the opportunity to catch the tour before it ends on Sunday, try not to miss Nate. Following were the emo-act, The Appleseed Cast. The band cruised through their set as the audience continued to file in throughout the weeknight.
By the time Cursive made it to the stage, the room was full and ready to get rowdy. Cursive faked out the crowd with the intro to Ugly Organ's, "Gentleman Caller" before jumping into Domestica's, "Lament of Pretty Baby." The fake-outs would continue throughout the night. Often kicking off with "Big Bang's" blusterous opening only to switch to a different song. The fake-outs did eventually lead to a payoff.
One of the joys of seeing Cursive perform is the occasional banter and jokes cracked by frontman, Tim Kasher. When asked if the crowd would like to hear how their new song "Botch Job" went, he began to describe and vocally replicate each part of the song before declaring that they would just play it. Cursive spent the set jumping between fan-favorites like "Art is Hard" and "The Martyr" and tracks like "Stranded Satellite" and "It's Gonna Hurt" from their most recent releases, Get Fixed and Vitriola. Eventually, they finished what they started by returning to "Gentleman Caller" to finish out their set.
Word had spread fast of Geoff Rickly's accident from the night before. The Thursday vocalist had fallen off the stage and broken his ankle. Needless to say, fans were unsure of how the night would go. Then the lights cut out. Queen's "The Show Must Go On" blared from the house speakers as the band walked out. Rickly rode to the center of the stage on a scooter with a cast on his foot and a smile on his face. He wasn't about to let the injury take away from the performance. The band jumped into War All the Time's opener "For the Workforce, Drowning." The band continued onto classics like "Cross Out the Eyes," "Jet Black New Year," and "Signals Over the Air."
One of the frontman's most endearing qualities is the love he expresses toward music and performing. He took a moment to reflect on the struggles throughout the tour, from having to postpone the first half due to the rise of Omicron, members getting covid (which even resulted in multiple special guests filling in), as well as shows getting snowed out, and to Rickly breaking his foot. He recounted how someone asked him if he thought God was trying to tell him that he shouldn't be touring but felt that the experience will just make them stronger. Rickly took a seat and delivered an emotional and impassioned performance of "This Song Brought to You By a Falling Bomb." The audience watched and listened in awe as he repeated the song's final lines over and over to a room of silence.
With Norman Brannon of Texas is the Reason filling in this tour, it only seemed natural for them to throw in a Texas is the Reason cover in the form of "If It's Here When We Get Back It's Ours," while scouring their own discography for deep cuts like "Running From the Rain" from 2006's A City by the Light Divided. But of course, no Thursday show is complete without "Understanding in a Car Crash" which really amped up the Tuesday night crowd before closing the show with the faux encore of "War All the Time." When the show was over, there was no question that Thursday and Rickly gave 110%. His foot may have been broken, but his spirit wasn't.
