Live Review - Meshuggah/Thursday

29 February, 2012 – The Forum Theatre/Billboards, Melbourne

This particular evening was an interesting one.  With Soundwave festival only two days away, the night was filled with sideshows.  Just about every venue in Melbourne had been booked by a band playing the festival.  While this was great for live music in the city, it also meant that you had a hell of a lot of trouble trying to pick which show to go to because they were all on the same night.  Personally, I chose to go to two shows.  I decided I would begin my night at The Forum Theatre and watch Swedish metallers, Meshuggah, supporting Devin Townsend, then leave before Devin Townsend started playing and make my way a few blocks to Billboards to watch post-hardcore veterans, Thursday, perform their last headlining show ever.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive Devin fan.  I love his music and he is truly awesome live.  If you have the chance to see him, do so.  You won’t regret it.  However, for me, seeing Thursday perform for the last time was a little more important than seeing Devin play for the third time.  Devin will be back and I will be there, but Thursday would be gone forever after this evening (unless of course they take the standard ten year break and then come back at Coachella which seems to be the trend lately).

            Meshuggah truly are one of the innovators of modern metal music.  Their style has since been imitated by a thousand other bands and has recently given rise to the relatively new “djent” movement.  Just to give you an idea as to how influential Meshuggah have been, their first release to gain international attention was 1995’s Destroy Erase Improve.  After that, they released their groundbreaking masterpiece, Chaosphere, in 1998 before 2002’s Nothing helped them land an audience in the U.S.  The band has been so far ahead of the curve that it is only now that other bands have begun successfully incorporating Meshuggah’s sound into their own music.  So, it is with some anticipation that one attends a Meshuggah show, knowing that you are about to witness a true original.

            Having said all this, it was my fifth time seeing Meshuggah play.  Every time they’ve played Melbourne, I’ve been there.  Their first tour here was in 2008 to promote the relatively new ObZen album and they have toured here two more times without any new material being released.  The first time I saw them, they were absolutely breathtaking; one of the best live bands I had ever seen up to that point.  The next time they played here, some of the shine had worn off.  Without any new music to play, they played a fairly predictable setlist and lacked the energy they had shown last time.  Thomas Haake’s back surgery may have had some contribution, but he still showed enough skill to prove that, even in his “not quite 100%” state, he could still out-drum nearly anyone on the planet.  Now, seeing them again, the band played much better than they had played last time, but there was a definite lack of energy.

            The problem with seeing Meshuggah at the moment is that their set draws heavily on two albums (ObZen and Nothing) and while there is nothing wrong with those two albums, it means they neglect the two albums that many people consider to be their finest (Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere).  While the band plays each song with perfection, songs like Lethargica could easily be replaced by something like Neurotica, Future Breed Machine, Suffer In Truth or Humiliative from their older albums.  Australian fans have seen them play ObZen and Nothing material and there seemed to be a feeling of disappointment when the only older track they played was the incredible New Millennium Cyanide Christ.  Even new song, Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion, while it had much more power than its released version, failed to spark much of an interest in me as it plods along and sounds, to me, like Meshuggah on autopilot.  It is a bit of a shame to write these things about a band that I respect so much, but I am still very much looking forward to hearing Koloss at the end of this month.  Live though, Meshuggah need to vary their setlist as playing virtually the same thing for five years is starting to get a little old.

            It was then on to see Thursday at Billboards.  Thursday had made it known prior to this show that it would be the last headlining show they would ever perform (their last actual set would be at Perth’s Soundwave).  Needless to say, it was an emotional evening, not only for the band, but also for the fans.  It was both parties’ chance to say good-bye and thank you to one another for more than a decade of great music, excellent shows and good times had together.  To celebrate the occasion, Thursday had also announced that they would play their breakthrough album, 2001’s Full Collapse, in its entirety.  Personally, I am more of a casual fan.  I loved their 2003 album War All The Time, but hadn’t really followed much of their work before or since.  Every time they’ve come out to play a festival, I’ve always checked their set out and been impressed by their energy and commitment to their audience.  But I had never been to one of the band’s own headlining shows, and so I felt the need to finally see one, their last one, before they were gone for good.

            For the entire night the crowd was in full voice, determined to send the band off with as much love as possible.  They sang along to every line and even took over from vocalist, Geoff Rickly, on many occasions.  In turn, Rickly thanked the crowd over and over again for their support and spoke about how grateful the band was for the career that they have had.  When it came to offering a reason for the band’s demise, Rickly simply stated that sometimes things just end.  He was careful to point out that there was no hostility between the band members, that each member counted the other as a brother and that they simply felt it was time to explore other things, that the band had run its course.  The audience appeared to be truly appreciative of this and gave huge roars of support with every statement Rickly made on the band’s behalf.

            My personal highlights of their set were, of course, their War All The Time material.  These songs just explode live and the crowd seemed to be injected with more energy when they launched into it after their Full Collapse set had finished.  Fans of the band’s long career may have been a touch disappointed by the set though.  Apart from Full Collapse they played four tracks from War All The Time, one track from their last album, No Devolución, and perennial set closer, Jet Black New Year from their 2002 EP, Five Stories Falling.  This meant that it was hardly a night that explored the full extent of their career to date, but generally the fans didn’t seem to mind as the show came to a close and the band took one last band photo in front of a screaming and adoring crowd.

            Before I sign off on this review I do want to state a few things about what a shame it is that Thursday are leaving the musical landscape.  Having been at the forefront of the post-hardcore movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Thursday have carried on where many of their contemporaries have broken up or faded into obscurity.  Although Thursday were a lot more popular ten years ago, they have maintained a loyal international fan base.  They have persisted with their music and continued to push their own personal boundaries.  And so it is with even greater sadness that Thursday are leaving us when some of their contemporaries are returning, most notably, At The Drive-In and Refused.  Think on this for a moment; Refused, At The Drive-In and Thursday were all groundbreaking bands during their heyday.  At The Drive-In and Refused broke up and now, ten years later, are reforming to huge expectations, renewed interest in their music and, no doubt, large appearance fees.  Thursday, on the other hand, didn’t break up.  The continued and rode the waves of popularity and fading out of mainstream view and are now finishing up without much of a mention in mainstream music media.  Had Thursday gone the way of At The Drive-In and Refused, they’d probably be seeing similar financial rewards for reforming about now.  To me, it doesn’t seem fair that the band that continued and pushed on, won’t see the rewards they deserve, but that seems to be the way things go today.  Band’s break up when they’re at their most popular, they take a ten year break, then they reform to huge fanfare and large appearance fees.  While no one’s disputing the impact of At The Drive-In or Refused’s music, or how good it is for them to be back, but bands like Thursday deserve more than what they are getting.