Thrice
Seattle, WA
November 4th 2018
Words & Photos by Mike Thomas
The year was 2002 and I was 13 years old. There were a lot of things changing in my life: I began to notice girls, my parents split up, and puberty was a real thing. However, one of my coping methods was music. But I didn’t like the music that my parents wanted me listen to — I needed something to call my own. I was explaining this all to a friend, and he showed me a different style of music I had never heard before. He showed me each song and I didn’t think much of it — except for one song. A song titled Kill Me Quickly by a band called Thrice, began to play. The next day, I asked my dad to drive me to the local CD store in the mall and I immediately went to the “punk” section and ooked under “T” and found an album entitled The Illusion of Safety.
Over the course of the last decade and a half, Thrice has released eight major studio albums (10 in total), with their highest success being found in 2005 with their album Vheissu (15 on US Charts). Thrice have truly run the spectrum of musical genres over the years. By not being afraid of experimentation, Thrice has found most of their albums carrying a different genre each cycle, but they remembered where it counts on Sunday November 4th in Seattle.
Covering all but one major record over the course of a 21 song setlist. My experience with this band culminated in an experience I never thought would ever come to fruition. While opening their set with a new song, Dustin quickly jumped back into some older favourites while taking myself, and 900 of my closest friends on a musical journey not soon to be forgotten.
As the night came to a close, the band walked off stage. I highly anticipated the encore. When they reemerged, they performed two songs from the album that lead me to place that this all started at over 16 years ago. To close the show out, Thrice played “Deadbolt” and “To Awake and Avenge the Dead”. With a hoarse voice and the largest smile on my face, I crossed a band that took over half my life to see off of my bucket list. Was it worth it? You bet! Would I do it all again? 100%
