Rocking the Forum: A Night to Remember with Thrice and Palm Reader

March 2, 2024 rocknews

What a night we had at this sold out show in Kentish Town. The queue to get in for the last date of Thrice’s tour was round the corner, and we knew when we arrived that we were in for a good evening.

Palm Reader

Woking-based Hardcore rockers Palm Reader got the proceedings underway with an impressive, intense seven song set. Opener ‘Hold / Release’ from 2020’s ‘Sleepless’ album set out their stall and got the Forum crowd going. After the song, singer Josh Mckeown stood at the front of the stage and said; “Gimme a minute guys; I’m just taking in this beautiful room. It’s beautiful isn’t it?” This drew a huge cheer. The rest of their set was made up of songs from ‘Sleepless’ and 2018’s ‘Braille’.

Palm Reader are a great live band – full of energy and they know how to put on a good show, using the stage well and moving around a lot. They were the perfect opener for Thrice and crowd loved them.

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Thrice

The clock struck 9pm, the lights went down, and Californian rockers Thrice took to the stage and a massive welcome from the diverse North London crowd.

Thrice are on tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2003 breakthrough album ‘The Artist in the Ambulance’, released on Island Records and their first album for a major label.

I have to say this gig got my heart racing, Thrice were a big part of the soundtrack of my teen years and to say I was anticipating greatness is an understatement. I was not disappointed.

The first part of the show saw the album played in its entirety, beginning with ‘Cold Cash and Colder Hearts’ – and what a start to was. The mosh pits started almost at once and didn’t let up throughout the show. ‘Under a Killing Moon’, single ‘All That’s Left’ and ‘Silhouette’ followed in quick succession.

The lighting added to the atmosphere, with pole lights on the stage switching colours and lighting each band member individually.

By the time they got to ‘Don’t Tell and We Won’t Ask’, they had well and truly earned the short break they took.

Dustin Kensrue, Teppi Teranishi, Eddie and Riley Breckenridge were welcomed back on stage to deliver a career-spanning and musically diverse seven-song set of classic tunes from their back catalogue. ‘Motion Isn’t Meaning’ kicked things off. This was followed by – a favourite from my teen years – ‘Deadbolt’ and its changing, complex time signatures.

‘Firebreather’ and ‘The Long Defeat’ finished the main set, but they were back for an encore of ‘Black Honey’, ‘Of Dust and Nations’ and ‘The Earth Will Shake’ – both from 2005’s ‘Vheissu’ – and what a way to finish an epic, 21-song set.

The stalls went wild and the balcony of the Forum was groaning under the pressure of the dancing, screaming fans – a sound (and sight) that we are sure will live in the memory of the band, and for me, for a long time.