Thursday

Saw Thursday at the Crowbar tonight.  Man I love that band.  But I need to rant first.

I hate the Crowbar.  It is so crusty and gross.  Not only is it gross because it’s a bar, and because it’s smoky, but because it’s tiny.  The standing room to watch concerts is maybe 25’ x 25’ with one corner shaved off because that’s where the stage is.  On the two edges opposite the stage, there’s an upper level where the bar is.

So you have, I dunno, maybe 150 people packed into that 25x25 area.  150 sweaty people all pressed right up against you.  That in itself isn’t as bad as it may seem.  But at a ~hardcore show, it’s pretty bad.  Let me explain the crowd dynamics of a hardcore show for anyone who’s never been to one.  CHAOS.  That’s all.  Pure chaos.  In a 25x25 square.  Pretty much the entire thing becomes a mosh pit.  Everyone is slamming against you on all sides, pushing and pulling you so you need to struggle just to stay on your feet.  Obviously I’m not anywhere near cool enough to appreciate how truly enjoyable that is, because I was preoccupied with trying to watch the band and sing/scream along.  I knew I should have gone up to the bar and sat or stood up there.

I’m more of the bouncing/rocking in place kind of concertgoer.  Music like Thursday moves me very much... when they played Cross Out The Eyes it was just... I thought I would spontaneously combust.  There is just so much emotion in that song.  And I can appreciate the fact that people get into it, because I do too.  But for me anyway, it’s just not fun when you can’t sing along because you’re trying to catch your breath because you’re getting slammed all over the place.

So that’s ridiculous factor #1.  Number two is the smoking.  I’m not even going to get into it.  Smoking is simultaneously the most idiotic and inconsiderate thing anyone could do, and the whole place was just full of idiotic, inconsiderate people who think that it’s a good idea.

In spite of all that, I’m glad I went.  Because I just love Thursday that much.  I don’t love the fact that Jonah’s Onelinedrawing played about 20 songs before Thursday, and then Thursday played all of 9 songs... that was total crap.  I don’t like Onelinedrawing; it’s sort of the same idea as Dashboard Confessional, except not good.  But whatever, you go to a show and you have to sit through bands you don’t like, but the thing is he felt the need to stop and say a bunch of perverted nonsense in between his 20 songs.  So that was annoying.

One really cool thing about Thursday’s fans is not only do they know all the words, but they sing them all -- loudly -- so loudly at times that they drown out the vocalist.  That’s really incredible to experience.  And at a show, you can really scream the screamed parts.  I only recently started to do this when I sing along to music; screaming is fundamentally different from singing, it’s not just "singing loudly," and it’s actually quite scary in solitude.  But at a show, it just fits because all the energy is there.

I never noticed before how much the vocalist (Geoff) looks like my cousin Micah.  In person tonight, it was quite striking; the resemblance isn’t nearly as strong in photos of him.  And on the new songs that they played tonight, I thought he sounded a bunch like Nathan Gray of BoySetsFire.  Weird.

So the show let out around 12:30 and me, Jeremy, Kris, and Andy went to Jimmy John’s for subs.  Mmmm good subs at Jimmy John’s.  All in all it was a rather rocking night.