In February 2002, Irvine-based rock band Thrice was on the rise. The quartet caught the attention of indie labels with its 2000 debut, “Identity Crisis,” and word was rapidly spreading about its fast-paced and wild live performances.
By the time its sophomore release, “The Illusion of Safety,” was out on Van Nuys-based indie label Sub City Records just two years later, the guys had major label reps showing up to sold-out club gigs and were asked to go on tour to support more established punk rock acts such as Face to Face and Anti-Flag.
“That record put us on the map, at least locally, and it’s when we really started to notice like wow, we’re starting to see something here,” Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge said during a recent video chat. Breckenridge, along with his bassist brother, Ed Breckenridge, and longtime friends vocalist-guitarist Dustin Kensrue and lead guitarist Teppei Teranishi originally formed the band back in 1998. The group is commemorating the 20th anniversary of “The Illusion of Safety” by playing it from front to back during four consecutive evenings at House of Blues in Anaheim on Dec. 15-18.
“When that record came out, things started to feel more real for us,” he recalled. “It also seemed to my folks like being in a band had finally just legitimized itself. It was all happening so quickly that it was hard to be in the moment, but also hard to go long view with it like ‘What does this all mean?’ It was very whirlwind-y, for lack of a better term.”
The album officially dropped on Feb. 5, 2002 and featured singles like “Deadbolt” and “Betrayal is a Symptom.” Looking back, Breckenridge said that Thrice’s sound has definitely matured over the past two decades, as the band members are now more song-oriented in the sense that they’re heavily into dynamics and allowing some breathing room and space, versus getting up there and just letting it rip as hard and as fast as they possibly can.
“It’s OK for everybody not to be playing all of the notes all of the time and at the same time,” he said with a laugh. The band first dusted off these tracks when it played the album in its entirety at Furnace Fest in Birmingham, Ala., back in September.
“I think the biggest challenge is that this album is so far removed from what we’re doing as a band now,” he said. “Everything is really, really fast and there are a ton of guitar riffs and I feel like the mentality of the band back then was ‘Just play as fast as possible.’ It’s just a different way of playing. Plus, we’re older now. I don’t have the energy that I had when I was 24 or 25, so it’s been a challenge to get back in shape for that kind of stuff.”
Jumping back into it, though, was “like riding a bike,” he said, noting that he’s curious what the crowds at these hometown shows in Anaheim will be like.
“We’ve seen over the years, as a symptom of the music we’re playing now, that people watch us and get into us by singing along and paying attention, whereas in the past it was everybody just going nuts and there were just bodies flying everywhere and people spilling onto the stage,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how many people come out of mosh retirement for this one.”
Songs like “A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds,” is something the band had never played live until the Furnace Fest gig, though Breckenridge said the song now seems a bit ahead of its time and would sit well within its more current repertoire. “Where Idols Once Stood” and “A Subtle Dagger” are riffy, moody and fast, but he said he’s happy to revisit those in a live setting.
“Even though I still listen to a lot of more aggressive metal stuff, we just don’t play that way now,” he said. “But it’s fun to flex that and massage that part of my brain again. A song like ‘See You in the Shadows,’ too, it’s more akin to like a Saves the Day type of song; it’s more melodic and semi-poppy, but super energetic and riffy, so that one is so fun to play. Also, thinking back now, that one wouldn’t seem super out of place for us to play now either.”
In 2012, Thrice went on indefinite hiatus and even played farewell shows at The Observatory in Santa Ana. The break lasted nearly five years and the guys eventually rekindled their friendships and reunited in 2016. They’ve since released three more records including their 11th album, “Horizons/East” on Los Angeles-based Epitaph Records, which was written and recorded during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns and released in September 2021.
Breckenridge said that for the first time in a long time, all of the band members are currently living within just a few miles of one another in north Orange County, with a common practice space where they’ve been hammering out new material.
Though Thrice had originally intended to release “Horizons/West,” a companion to its previous effort earlier this year, the project has been pushed due to returning to the road with a jam-packed touring schedule.
“Bands like us, we support our families by touring and when that goes away, it gets really tough to pay the bills, so it was a huge relief and really exciting to get back on the road,” Breckenridge said. “That (pandemic) break gave us time to assess everything and think about what we’ve done and what we’ve built and to just be really, really grateful for it. We’re so lucky to do this and to have it all taken away … it’s scary. Every show is a gift.”
As for the new album, Breckenridge said it’s still on the way. The band more recently put out a couple of new songs as singles including “Open Your Eyes and Dream,” as well as acoustic versions of “Horizons/East” tracks like “Summer Set Fire to the Rain” and “Scavengers.”
“The timeline we gave ourselves just wasn’t going to work anymore,” he said. “We didn’t want to just rush it with the amount of touring we were doing and the festival shows we had this year. We didn’t want to try to hit this deadline and not feel good about the finished product because there wasn’t enough time to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. So, ‘Horizons/West’ is … still on the horizon.”
He added that 2023 also marks two very special occasions: the 20th anniversary of Thrice’s popular major label debut, “The Artist in the Ambulance,” as well as the 25th anniversary of the band itself.
“We looked at the calendar and realized that, so we thought maybe we should adjust our plans a bit,” he said. “I can’t tell you what those plans are, but we’re working on something.”
Thrice: The 20th Anniversary of ‘The Illusion Of Safety’
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 15-16; 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17; 6 p.m. Dec. 18
Where: House of Blues, 400 Disney Way #337, Anaheim
Tickets: All shows are sold-out, however resale tickets are available from $65-$110 at LiveNation.com.
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