10. Thursday - Hellfest, New York State 2001
No, not the French Metal festival, but the now, sadly defunct and much missed Hardcore gathering that used to annually take place in upstate NY, or NJ on a couple of occasions. In the quite remarkable, and highly influential explosion of Emo/Screamo that happened in the first half of the "noughties", one band stood out above all others, and that was New Brunswick's Thursday. Always the thinking man's Post Hardcore band, theirs was a much darker, poetic and affecting art than any of their contemporaries. Career highlight and sophomore release, 'Full Collapse', was just two months old when Thursday played Hellfest 2001. Victory Records hadn't yet begun really pushing the release until later that year but there was a buzz among the Hardcore community's kids in the know, about this bunch of of floppy haired, skinny, nerdy looking guys that would look more at home in an art lecture or library, than tearing up stages. Playing a seven song set, with six from the new release, the band started with the genre-defining 'Understanding in a Car Crash', with a visible intensity and energy that didn't let up until the last note was played. The audience, packed into the medium sized roller-rink, began mainly static, but it didn't take long before there were crowd surfers, Hardcore dance pits (weird for a Thursday set) and people trying to grab the mic to help out singer, Geoff Rickley, with his poetic and emotional out-pourings. Online music forums were awash with chatter about the band and
that performance, with many even claiming falsely to have been there! Victory owner Tony Brummel, finally figured out what he had on his hands and promotion for 'Full Collapse' kicked up several notches. Band and label never really saw eye to eye on an artistic level and the band left for Island/Def Jam for next release, 'War All the Time'. Thursday found themselves spearheading this new scene that imploded a few years later due to over-saturation and terrible, third rate copyists. The band themselves enjoyed many more years of success, going down a much more indie-rock and less abrasive style with each release until they announced in 2012, they were on hiatus.