Cross Out The Eyes

The first time I listened to this song was in Grade 9. I was 14, and I had picked up my copy of Thursday's Full Collapse, which, I still remember, was selling for a ridiculous price at HMV due to their label's extremely limited distribution at the time. The first time I had heard of Thursday, they were a little, unknown, indie band from a small town in New Jersey, playing shows at the tiniest, shittiest venues across North America. Just starting out. I had heard about this band through my friend, who was older and more mature (and, therefore, way cooler than me). She had burned me their first album, Waiting, the year before — that was the beginning of my relationship with Thursday. But it wasn't until Full Collapse that I fell into a full-blown love affair with them. Thursday was different to a lot of bands that were out at the time, and beautifully so; their music is aggressive, melancholic, loud, and melodic. Before "post-hardcore" or "screamo" was even a genre.

Full Collapse would prove to be the soundtrack to the rest of my "angsty" teenage years and well into my 20's — that album has been with me through three Discmans, three iPods, and two iPhones; hell, through three continents and 15 countries. It is still my favourite album to this day: An album that is not catchy, but is so beautifully written and instrumentally complex that I can never get sick of it. I saw Thursday in concert nearly every year since that album came out, all the way from their days as an opening band at The Opera House, to their headlining days at Vans Warped Tour, to their tenth anniversary concert in honour of Full Collapse last year. I still have the negatives from the two rolls of film I took at their show with my shitty Pentax camera from nine years ago. So when I read the announcement that they were going to stop making music, my heart broke. I didn't realize how fully invested I was in this relationship until that moment.

So, consider this my ode to Thursday. The band who inspired so much of my artwork, from illustrations and photography in high school to full-blown graphic designs and web layouts I created when I owned a domain. The band whose lyrics inspired the dove tattoo I have on my forearm. The band whose song is the name of this blog. I thank them, their music, their lyrics, and their creativity for the past 14 years for inspiring me in ways I could never imagine.