The Hope Conspiracy / Thrice / American Nightmare / Converge tour hit the Pittsburgh area Monday, Nov 26 at the Mr. Roboto Project II. Thrice failed to show up, which would be understandable if they had legititmate problems, but according to American Nightmare and Covnerge, the band got lost (to them this was unacceptable being that they had hours upon hours before they were supposed ot take the stage). According to Converge, Thrice actually claimed to be lost, be sick, and they didn't want to "waste their voices on a small show" Pittsburgh takes this as an insult as does American Nightmare and Converge. Both bands vowed to make sure the rest of the tour would be hell for them, and both bands were mocking Thrice on stage. For another angle, Thrice issued an apology on their site, www.Thrice.net to everyone who came out to see them and promised to come back in Feb/Mar when their new record comes out. Click READ MORE for the other side of the story…
I'm writing this because the person who posted about this tour previously was obviously not well informed. Here is what happened:
**Thrice drove 47 hours to get to the Pittsburgh show w/ Dustin (the singer) being sick since they left California. Sleeping in the van in the midwest during winter and not showering certainly didn't speed any kind of recovery. Would it seem logical that they would drive that distance in that amount of time (3 days) and pull out of a show for anything less than a dire situation? No.
**The band was given the wrong address. On their contract the address was listed as "Pittsburgh" and not "Wilkinsinburg", getting them lost in a town they didn't know. They ended up getting directions to the club from their manager over the phone while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic a good hour from the club. They were to go on in that amount of time. Rather than rush to the show, thereby stressing out the other bands, delaying the show, and playing a set which would have more than likely have ended up instrumental, they opted to drive to Detroit and let Dustin recouperate as much as possible in a hotel room for the evening.
** Thrice then called Converge's tour manager and let them know what was happening. At no time was "wasting their voices on the small show" ever so much as uttered. (this is a band that has played plenty of shows to 10 people after driving all night) At the same time, Converge's booking agent called and left a similar message on the tour manager's phone. Somehow in the game of "telephone" Thrice's words were misconstrued and they were made to look poorly on stage by the other bands.
***This is the most important part. After discussing the situation the next day in Detroit, everything is now fine between all of the bands. The promise to make "the rest of the tour hell" has taken a back seat to acknowledgement of a misunderstanding.