Arts & Entertainment
 

Thrice grows out of small-time venues

By Dusti Rhodes

The Daily Cougar

One of the first times Thrice played Houston it was in a house turned pizza shop/venue called The Oven. About 20 people came to the show -- it was a small mixture of the bands on the bill, their friends and a handful of Thrice fans. The show may not have sold out but as soon as Thrice took to the inch-off-the-floor "stage," everyone in the room was in the band members' faces screaming lyrics from Identity Crisis, the band's only album at the time.

Today, The Oven is well done -- converted into a Mexican restaurant, and Thrice, a band that in the past could not even fill a small house, had a line out the door of the Engine Room on Tuesday night. 

Fans waited outside in hopes that someone inside would decide to leave so they would be admitted into the show. Once inside, metal barricades kept the crowd arm lengths away from the stage, and security guards squandered any opportunity for shared microphone sing-a-longs between fans and band members.

The price of fame for Thrice is intimacy. 

"It's really cool that a lot of kids are coming out, but in the end that doesn't make the show any better," Thrice bassist Ed Breckenridge said. "The Oven was an awesome show. I think that like two shows on this tour were as fun as that show."

Thrice still managed, however, to put on an exciting performance for their fans by the club-full as it used to do for fans by the handful.

Thrice only played one song from its first full-length, Identity, with the rest being a mix of songs off its new album The Artist in the Ambulance and its second album The Illusion of Safety. 

The band got off to a rough start at the beginning of its set, as the Engine Room, once again, let down with the sound. The band had to restart its first song three times because of technical difficulties.

"Does anyone care if we just skip that song?" lead singer Dustin Kensrue asked the audience after the third failure. "Ok, cool."

It is doubtful the band had anything to do with the difficulties, Thrice is usually the first to recognize their own mistakes on stage. After one song, through crowd cheers, distortion and drums, lead guitarist Teppei Teranishi turned to Kensrue and told him his guitar needed tuning, Kensrue quickly got his strings in order and it was on with the show.

The crowd helped security guards earn their paychecks as they floated past the barricades from a sea of hands that were either assisting surfers or folded into fists pumping along with every beat of Thrice's speedy metal pop tunes.

The crowd's enthusiasm seemed to be determined by Thrice's attitudes — when the band members tuned out the crowd, toned down and lost focus. But when the band took to the microphone the fans quickly regained consciousness as their sweaty red faces screamed themselves hoarse.

Poison the Well was on before Thrice, its ability to maximize the space on the stage leaves one to wonder how Thrice could have topped their performance. 

Guitarist Ryan Primack took his fair share of stances on top of a box that was sitting in front of the stage and lead singer Jeff Moreira stretched his body out as far as he could over the empty space in an attempt to reach the crowd. 

The band did play a lot of the slower songs off their new album You Come Before You. 

Darkest Hour and Moments in Grace opened the show. Darkest Hour is an amazing metal group from Washington D.C., and although a majority of the audience did not come to see them many bought an album or a T-shirt. 

"I look up to the bands we are playing with," Breckenridge said, adding that he was thankful the band could tour with bands they respect.

Thrice/Poison the Well

Engine Room 1515 Pease

The Verdict: The Oven is baked, but Thrice is no where near a burn out.



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