Moderate Rock

Let’s start at the end tonight. For perhaps the first time in a decade of London gigs, Thrice don’t end their set with ‘Deadbolt’. Sure, it’s a song they’ve been trying to cut loose for ages but tonight they manage it for the first time. And for perhaps the first time there are more people here happy not to hear it than upset it doesn’t get aired. Hell, for most people it doesn’t even register. Never mind the people though, it’s a sign that this band, a group of genuinely progressive musicians, are properly moving on. That, and that the next Thrice album is going to be some genuine next level shit.

They’re already bloody brilliant of course. Some folks call it boring when a band is this consistent but Thrice somehow manage to be reliable and safe and familiar and push forward at the same time. It helps that, like Deftones or Radiohead even, they now possess a back catalogue big and healthy enough to support three or four shows in a row. They show off the best of latest record ‘Beggars’ (from the deep, dark hooks of opener ‘All the World Is Mad’ to the subtle weight of ‘Circles’), dip into ‘Vheissu’ (including an incredible crowd-powered ‘Image of the Invisible’) and ‘The Alchemy Index’ (‘Come All You Weary’ fully electric but still sounding 1000-years old) and go as far back as ‘To Awake and Avenge the Dead’ and the only time the show isn’t utterly magnetic is for a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’.

They finish with a version of ‘Beggars’ that goes from a powerful whisper commanding complete silence from the crowd through a huge anthemic roar to a wall of noise built brick by brick until it falls apart in the most glorious fashion. It’s a cathartic end to an emotional, essential show. The best bit though? That they’ll be even better the next time.