Thursday: So Emotional

THURSDAY FELT BEATEN DOWN IN 2004. The six-piece post-hardcore band from New Jersey had just come off two years of touring its hit CD "War All the Time," and the band's go-go-go mentality had finally caught up with its members.

"There was a lot of interpersonal tension in the band," said keyboardist Andrew Everding. "There were certain people in the band who weren't feeling it at that point. Like, 'Hey, if I go any further, I'm going to lose my mind.'"

There was even talk of breaking up, but the band took a few months off, the musicians let their emotions settle and Thursday reconvened to start writing "A City by the Light Divided," which came out in May 2006.

The band's heart is still Geoff Rickly's passionate vocals, which recall the pained wail of The Cure's Robert Smith mixed with screamo breakdowns. But on "A City by the Light Divided," the band's still heavy music is a bit more atmospheric than the sometimes jarring sounds of its past, and Everding said Thursday is more satisfied with its latest CD than anything else the band has done before.

Part of the reason Thursday is so much happier with "A City by the Light Divided" is because the group had a full year to write it; "War All of the Time" was rushed because the band was eager to record its major label debut. "We got off tour, and we took three days off — then we had roughly a month and a half, two months to write 'War All the Time,'" Everding said. "There was a lot of pressure at the time."

While "A City by the Light Divided" hasn't spawned a hit as big as "Signals Over the Air" (from "War All the Time"), it includes many great songs, like the single "Counting 5-4-3-2-1." Thursday isn't worried its popularity is slipping, either, knowing the hugely catchy "Signals Over the Air" took a long time to catch on — even among Thursday fans.

"The audiences are getting bigger and bigger slowly, and it takes a little while for them to respond to the stuff that we write," Everding said.

"I feel like the next record we write, when we tour for that, most of the stuff from 'A City by the Light Divided' will probably be more well received than it is right now."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Murder by Death, Fear Before the March of Flames, Heavy Heavy Low Low, Fri., 7 p.m. doors, $17; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photo by Ken Schles