THIRCE and THURSDAY are probably two of the top five bands that have had an effect on the history of Pastepunk. I’m around the same age as the fellas in both bands (30s), and had the privilege of watching both in their earliest stages and writing about them.

The first time I saw THURSDAY was at the defunct Wilson Center in DC, well before they signed to Victory Records. They were a screechy emo band with a crazy exuberant singer that played to a room partially full of arms-folded crusties. Great dynamic! Someone’s car right outside the venue got broken into during their set and the sound of glass shattering was almost deafening, and probably the highlight for some… I never expected that I would hear from this band again until Full Collapse landed in my mailbox, and I certainly didn’t think I’d interview the band in 2002 and 2004 and ask questions about MTV and radio exposure.

It was close friend Kevin Wade, from the former music site Punkrocks.net, that mentioned THRICE to me for the first time, when the original version of their debut full-length Identity Crisis hit his review pile. Little time elapsed before Hopeless Records picked up the release and Kevin and I made it to the band’s first show in DC, us being virtually the only two people standing next to the stage singing along. There was a head nod, and later, some quick complimentary words with Dustin. I’m not afraid to admit that I really enjoyed that ‘special feeling’ of being in on a band before seemingly the rest of the Mid-Atlantic. It’s one of those myopic feelings at 20/21 that makes you believe in the purpose of doing a zine and evangelizing your music interests to everyone everywhere. I must have locked the door to my apartment bedroom in 2001-2002 and listened to The Illusion of Safety a few hundred times. Similarly, I interviewed the band in 2002 and 2004 and marveled at what kind of music they would create during their career ascension.

Bands don’t last forever. I’ve long reconciled the fact that the music of punk, hardcore, etc. is truly for the kids. But it stings like hell to watch the fixtures of my formative young adult years get off the full-time band carousel, even when you understand completely that everything is a matter of time and place.