St. Louis gets a rare club-sized Thrice show Thursday night.
On September 17, the Irvine, California quartet headlines Delmar Hall with support from local act Not Waving But Drowning. Doors are at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. The date is all ages. Advance general admission is $33.50; day-of tickets are $38.50. The venue lists a strict no-cameras, no-audio, no-video policy.
The booking is a pocket of breathing room on a packed fall itinerary. Thrice play Nashville the night before with Taking Back Sunday and Saves The Day, then pivot into Riot Fest in Chicago and Louder Than Life in Louisville. Delmar Hall is the one proper headline stop in the middle of that stretch — a 750- to 800-capacity room on Delmar Boulevard instead of a festival slot or a package bill.
That matters for a band that has spent more than 25 years refusing to freeze in place.
Formed in 1998 by Dustin Kensrue (vocals/guitar) and Teppei Teranishi (guitar), with brothers Eddie Breckenridge on bass and Riley Breckenridge on drums, Thrice came up in the late-’90s/early-2000s post-hardcore wave. They never stayed there. The Illusion of Safety and The Artist in the Ambulance made them essential to that scene. Vheissu and the Alchemy Index records widened the palette. Later albums on Vagrant and Epitaph — Beggars, Major/Minor, To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere, Palms, Horizons/East — kept adding texture, atmosphere, and lyrical weight without sanding off the urgency.
Last October they released Horizons/West, their twelfth studio album and the companion piece to 2021’s Horizons/East. Kensrue has described it as the first time the band leaned into a direct sequel. The record deals with how algorithms, fear, and closed loops distort what people think they are seeing. Musically it swings between the snarled attack of “Gnash,” the hook of “Albatross,” and longer, duskier pieces such as “The Dark Glow,” “Vesper Light,” and closer “Unitive/West.” The band produced it themselves at New Grass Studios.
Recent headline sets have mixed that new material with the songs that built the catalog. Expect “Blackout” and “Gnash” early, “Holding On,” “Albatross,” and “Vesper Light” from the latest cycle, and the usual live pillars: “The Artist in the Ambulance,” “Black Honey,” “Of Dust and Nations,” “The Earth Will Shake,” and “Deadbolt.” Festival sets this summer were shorter and heavier on the early catalog. A club headline date should leave more room for both.
Opening is Not Waving But Drowning, a St. Louis heavy/post-hardcore band with deep local roots and festival credits that include Furnace Fest. A hometown support slot in a room this size is the right fit for a night built around intensity rather than spectacle.
Delmar Hall rewards that approach. The room is close. The ceiling is low enough that a four-piece with this much dynamic range can fill it without extra staging. For a band whose live reputation has always rested on precision and conviction more than theatrics, that is the point.
Thrice last played St. Louis a few years ago. This is the first chance since Horizons/West to hear the new songs in a room that size, with a local opener and a ticket price that still looks like a club show. For a catalog this long and a band that still treats each record as a new problem to solve, that is the draw.
Tickets remain available through the Pageant/Delmar Hall site and usual outlets. Arrive early if you want a spot on the floor.
