It’s safe to say that the genres belonging to both of these bands have taken the backburner in my daily listening habits. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen Thursday, and maybe a few Warped Tours since I’ve seen an Underoath set. That being said, both bands are responsible for some of my favorite live performances growing up. Between the fact that Thursday was celebrating 10 years since the release of their underground classic Full Collapse and Underoath on their first US tour since the departure of the lone original member, Aaron Gillespie, there was a lot riding on this tour date.

Hit the jump for the recap.

-grizzly

Arriving to the venue a bit later than planned, we’d come to find that Animals As Leaders, though billed higher, played first; We missed their set. We would also come to find that A Skylit Drive was on stage, and I quickly concluded that this particular band is everything that is wrong with the hardcore genre. Their music is contrived, uninspired and cheesy (I swear I heard lyrics about swords stabbing hearts) and their image consisted of a mallrat’s shopping spree at a Hot Topic. A go-to joke, sure, but take a look and see for yourself. Yeah, yeah – it should be about the music, but when you’d rather stand outside in the freezing cold instead of watching the band because it’s a less painful idea, you’re doing that whole ‘music thing’ wrong.

Thursday was up next, and wasted no time getting into an album that many in attendance had once considered one of their favorite albums of all time. Full Collapse still holds up after all these years, despite the gimmicky, political discourse featured in the lyrics. This also marked a historic occasion – seeing “Concealer” performed for the first time. During my youth, I maintained that the track was my favorite cut from the album, but in my 4 or 5 times seeing the band perform headline sets, I had never seen it performed live. Consider that a scratch off my teenage angst bucket list.

The New Jersey sextet burned through the album, playing it at a faster tempo than on record. Because of the fact that they were direct support, this should’ve been expected. Minimal chatter between the songs also made for a quicker show, with Geoff Rickley’s banter being limited to “Thank you for all these great years” and “Wind-Up sucks, but we’re gonna play it anyway.” The most noteworthy items of the night were the facts that Tucker Rule has gotten so much better at manning the drum kit, and that Thursday still possesses the same energy they did when they were playing these songs in 2001.

Underoath made their way to the stage, backed by an immense epilepsy-inducing LCD light display backdrop. In the previous shows before this one, I had noticed that Underoath had stepped their game up, both musically and aesthetically. Featured again was a giant projection screen with oddball choices in video entertainment, that played silently while the band churned through songs from most of their albums. The LCD lights pulsated throughout the set, and watching the band in entirely silhouette form was a great visual aspect. This is going to sound odd – but vocalist Spencer Chamberlain has the perfect hair for the type of visuals that they were trying to achieve.

Despite having a brand new record out, 2010’s Disambiguation, Underoath played old favorites like “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door” and “A Boy Brushed Red…” with a tenacity that they’ve never played with before. The standards for performance in their live sets have been raised from all shows past, as the members of the bands have perfected their instruments. The departure of drummer Gillespie was especially hard considering he handled all of the clean vocals, but guitarist Timothy McTague took the reigns with no qualms. And with the added help of Chamberlain, the band missed no steps vocally. And the drums? Former Norma Jean skin-pounder Daniel Davidson took over and was a far more techincal and refined drummer than Gillespie ever was.

Say what you will about the genre and the band, but Underoath have a history of taking situations that could easily end the average band and have come out on top. They’ve lost lead singers, backup singers, guitarists and drummers, and managed to make everything work in their favor. To be frank, they even managed to outshine a band who had 1/3 of the crowd leave after their set. This tour (aside from the openers) makes a lot of sense and is definitely one of the better heavy shows that will hit Houston all year.

Setlists:

[THURSDAY]

Full Collapse
–
New Song

[UNDEROATH] via AP.net forums:

In Regards to Myself
Breathing in a New Mentality
In Division
It’s Dangerous Business
Catch Myself Catching Myself
The Created Void
Paper Lung
To Whom It May Concern
Moving for the Sake of Motion
A Divine Eradication
Boy Brushed Red
Who Will Guard the Guardians

Encore:
Illuminator
Writing on the Walls

Note: The Thursday photo was taken from their website, and the Underoath photo belongs to SoundSpike.

-grizzly