Live review: Thursday, Rival Schools and Many Eyes live at Irving Plaza

New York, NY – 24 Feb 2024

War All Of The Time in the shadow of the New York skyline

Twenty years is a long time ago, but not so long that the things we loved faded from our memories.  Twenty plus years ago I remember a bunch of my friends getting way into this metalcore record called Hot Damn!  It wasn’t a record that hit for me, but the way they loved it made me feel like I was the one who was wrong for not becoming obsessed.  Tonight, I saw frontman Keith Buckley’s newest project Many Eyes tear the roof off of Irving Plaza. Twenty-one years ago I was obsessively listening to Rival Schools.  Tonight I saw the band for the first time, and as luck would have it, I saw the original lineup. Twenty-one years ago, after countless performances in local firehouses and halls, I saw Thursday celebrate the release of their major label debut War All The Time,  my girlfriend at the time, now wife, and I made our way to the release tour.  Tonight, they celebrated the anniversary by playing the album in full just as they had when I saw them in September at Starland Ballroom. Something about tonight was special, there was a buzz in the air from the moment I stepped onto the line into the venue.  We all knew that between the proximity to each of the band’s hometowns and the circumstances between each performance, this show was going to echo through the chambers of our hearts… and it certainly fucking did.

Many Eyes took the stage for the first time in NYC and put the sold out space on notice. The amount of people in the crowd thoroughly excited to see the band with only 3 tracks released to the wild was impressive.  The 4-piece fronted by Keith Buckley absolutely made the best of their time on stage with guttural screams, soaring vox and maximum goddamn shred. 

Having released only 3 songs to the public it’d be easy to accept a weak crowd performance, but Buckley and the the Bellmore siblings on guitar and drums made sure there were no concessions made. From the second he did the sign of the cross entering the stage until the second he gave a prayer handed appreciation pose to close it out Buckley was on. And he was on 11. 

It was perfected violence and uplifting beat downs for the entirety of the set. Not a person in Irving Plaza was leaving without knowing that Many Eyes will soon be releasing the most anticipated record of any of their careers and many of our lives. When Thursday was on the stage later in the evening, frontman Geoff Rickley heaped praise upon Buckley’s thundering vocals and lyrical depth. All of the praise paled in comparison to the perfect performance.

Rival Schools were next to the stage, and despite this being a reunion show for the original line-up following a break, there was no rust shown.  The band’s poppy and breezy breath of fresh air.  Few words could describe the power of the moment except to say it was a moment… such a moment that Keith Buckley, who had been on the full tour with Rival Schools before tonight’s final stop, could be found in the crowd with a few friends, glued to the show.

With their mastery of the sound, Rival Schools kept the energy high and light, blending their hardcore pedigree (Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Quicksand) with power-pop influences, creating a magical sound that I wish we had more of.  The tension was overwhelming as nobody wanted to see Rival Schools leave the stage but everybody was stoked for Thursday to take their rightful place as headliner.

20 years later, the album title of War All The Time has proven sadly prophetic.  While we watch the world disintegrate further and further into polarizing political identities we really do spend all of our lives in this ideological tug of war. And those real-life battles shone throughout the band’s time on stage.  Immediately upon stepping onto the boards at Irving Plaza, Thursday’s emotions and ecstasy were palpable.  The band blazed through “For the Workforce, Drowning,” twenty years later, still spot-on in the way the late-stage capitalism feeds into a life of servitude we can never dig ourselves out of.  

It was a far cry from the near empty Wayne Firehouse where I’d first seen them.  The energy was through the roof, as Geoff Rickley and his crew turned the packed venue into an epic New Brunswick basement show.  Performing the post-hardcore masterpiece, Thursday had all of the crowd in the palm of its hand before they hit a poignant note with “Jet Black New Year.”  

Following the last few years, being able to shout along to lines like “How long can we take this chance not to celebrate,” felt like so much more than your average heartfelt sing along.  It was a release, a signal that this is what we need, a collection of kids in their 30s and 40s remembering why they loved this scene so hard and how the experience filled a void that had been growing exponentially. “Jet Black New Year,” the track that was written for but not released on War All The Time, closed out the proper set. (fuck Victory Records, right?)

With a crowd full of sweat and solidarity and the existential fulfillment that can only be found in the energy of a live performance, the band returned for a three-song encore.  Coming out with the one-two punch of “Cross Out The Eyes” and “Understanding In A Car Crash” before closing out with the fitting, homecoming cut: “Turnpike Divides.”  

Thursday brought everything around full circle for those of us who have been doing this for the last 25 years and you could see it in the conversations and new friendships formed in the pit.  Thursday has always been a beacon for this community, and its a delight to see that hasn’t changed in the last few years.  If Thursday originally connected with my feeling of being lost in the wake of Columbine, 9/11, fake wars and economic collapse, their shows and the accords struck in their crowds helped me feel a part of something.  

Tonight, they reconnected and reignited those feelings despite the attacks on sexual freedoms, treason and commonality of school shootings we’ve lived through; a triumph in spite of the trials and tribulations of the 2020s.  Of the dozens of times I’ve seen Thursday, in countless venues as small as a New Brunswick basement and as large as Madison Square Garden, tonight was the best… and that’s saying a whole goddamned lot.