Thursday are on tour now playing their 2003 album War All the Time in full with support from Rival Schools and former Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley’s new band Many Eyes, and for the occasion, singer Geoff Rickly has made us a list of the music, books, and films that inspired the classic album. It includes Cursive, Nas, Philip Glass, Cat Power, and more, and Geoff provided commentary on how each one impacted the making of War All the Time. Read on for what he had to say.
The tour hits NYC on February 24 at Irving Plaza, which is also the final date of tour. After that, Thursday are doing a War All the Time vs Full Collapse set at the UK’s Outbreak Fest and playing Full Collapse at Las Vegas’ When We Were Young festival. All dates are listed below.
Thursday also reissued their War All the Time Live album, which you can get on CD or cassette (vinyl is sold out).
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Influences Behind Thursday’s War All the Time
by Geoff Rickly
The Incognito Lounge by Denis Johnson
I’ve been obsessed with Denis Johnson since filmmaker David Gordon Green first got me into Jesus Son. After reading all his novels I went in on the poetry. “In the Light of Other Lives” is felt all over War All the Time.
Cat Power— You are Free
My patron Saint. I was obsessed with this record. The sad distance of Chan’s vocal performance shows up on “The Song Brought to You by a Falling Bomb.” But the lyric in “Between Rupture and Rapture” “someone call the head nurse (she’s coming to the capital to wrap us up and throw us in the dirt)” is a direct nod to Evolution.
Cursive — Domestica
Cursive showed me how to turn a domestic spat into a full fledged stage show drama. I wanted to turn it into a never ending war.
Gang of Four — Entertainment
All the angles in “Signals Over the Air” and “Asleep in the Chapel” owe a little something to this masterpiece.
Tarkovsky — especially Stalker
Liminal spaces before liminal spaces were cool. Nothing feels more apt to modern life than Soviet brutalism. But Tarkovsky shows the brutality of society against the poetic truth at the heart of the Soviet soul. I love his movies. That dichotomy is at the heart of WATT.
Philip Glass
Steve got big into Philip Glass before this record and it shows up in the beautiful recursive guitar lines all over the record, but especially on the title track.
Nas
The song “War All the Time” is something I wrote the lyrics to after immersing myself in Nas. He is the king of small details. You can build a cathedral out of matchbooks if you’re careful enough about how you lay them down.
Anne Carson — Autobiography of Red
Violence. Anne Carson was one of the main people I studied in school and her particular depiction of violence is a big part of why War All the Time still feels so visceral even today, 20 years later.
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Thursday / Rival Schools / Many Eyes — 2024 Tour Dates
02/08 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
02/09 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
02/10 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
02/11 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Theater
02/13 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk (Outside)
02/15 – Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits
02/16 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live
02/17 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham
02/18 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
02/20 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
02/21 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
02/22 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
02/23 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Elevation 27
02/24 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza