Post-hardcore veterans Thursday brought their Full City Devolución tour to Anthology in Rochester on Saturday, April 25, celebrating the milestone anniversaries of three of their albums. The band was joined by Chris Conley (Saves the Day).
Hailing from New Brunswick, New Jersey, Thursday released their first studio album, Waiting, in 1999. While the album was well received, it was their 2001 release Full Collapse that garnered widespread success, leading to national tours with artists like Saves the Day, as well as appearances on the Warped Tour. They would go on to release six studio albums before disbanding in 2012. The band returned to the stage in 2016, and after several tours together, they have re-established themselves as a force in the post-hardcore scene. They have since released several new singles, including “Taking Inventory of a Frozen Lake” in 2025. The band consists of Geoff Rickly (vocals), Tom Keeley (guitar), Steve Medulla (guitar), Tim Payne (bass guitar), and Tucker Rule (drums).
Saturday evening kicked off with a solo, acoustic set by Chris Conley, the frontman for indie rockers Saves the Day. Conley delighted the audience, which was already packed elbow to elbow inside the venue, with a 45-minute set of acoustic renditions of Saves the Day fan-favorites. After opening with “Certain Tragedy” and “Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off to Heaven”, Conley turned to the audience for song requests for the remainder of his set. While some requests drew a laugh and an acknowledgement of “I’m going to need to re-learn that one in the hotel,” Conley mostly obliged the fans’ pleas, performing favorites like “Cars & Calories”, “The Way His Collar Falls”, and “You Vandal”.
Following a brief set change, the house lights dimmed to near pitch black, as cryptic music filled the club. The audience’s attention quickly shifted to the back of the venue, where singer Geoff Rickly stood, holding a small lantern which illuminated his silhouette. Rickly sang “Empty Glass”, a haunting and brooding ballad off the band’s 2011 release, No Devolución. As the song concluded, Rickly made his way to the stage and joined his band members who launched into the upbeat rocker “Fast to the End”, from the same album.
Early in the set, Rickly explained the evening’s agenda. “We’re going to work our way back in time, from our most experimental album on back”. The tour was formed to pay homage to three key albums in Thursday’s catalog all of which were celebrating milestone anniversaries: Full Collapse (25 years), A City By the Light Divided (20 years), and No Devolucion (15 years), spaced out over two sets, with the second set devoted exclusively to Full Collapse.
A highlight of the first set came midway through, when Rickly gave thanks and praise to Conley and his bandmates in Saves the Day. Rickly attributed an early tour with Saves the Day as a catalyst which launched the band to new heights. As he continued, he told a story of the end of their tour, when the band was driving home through the mid-west in a terrifying snow storm, and as they descended a mountain, they saw countless tractor-trailers swerving and sliding. “We were okay” Rickly proclaimed, before the band immediately launched in to the heavy rocker “At this Velocity”, brilliantly weaving the story in to the song’s opening lyric, “We were safe!”.
The second set began in stark contrast to the first, with the intensely building “Autobiography of a Nation”, which sent the audience into an enthusiastic frenzy, as they shouted the song’s opening lyrics at the band. The fast paced second set wove through tracks from Full Collapse, the high-energy and emotionally intense album which earned the band a devoted following from their earliest days.
Through out the evening, the band never dipped in energy. Rickly jumped, bounced, and clawed his way around the stage, in the pit, and up on the security barrier to bring himself closer to his fans. The thunderous momentum from the band and the energy from the audience shook the barricade separating the crowd from the stage, while mosh pits and a crowd surfer broke out, transforming the club back in to something resembeling a scene from the early 2000s. The second set saw Full Collapse staples such as “Cross Out the Eyes”, “Paris in Flames”, and “Standing on the Edge of Summer”.
The band closed out the evening with the frantic rocker “Understanding in a Car Crash”, which brought the audience to one final frenzy before spilling out in to the late April cold.
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