After their Sunday night show at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, I was given the opportunity to chat it up with vocalist Dustin and guitarist Teppei of Thrice. Seeing as my tape recorder refused to function, the quotes may not be one hundred percent quota

Kat: What’s with the jacking up of t-shirt prices at tonight’s show?
Dustin: That always happens when you tour with bigger bands like the Deftones.

Kat: Good job tonight by the way, how do you think the show went?
Thrice: It was pretty good, actually, considering that the stage was kind of high and everything it still was a good show.

Kat: How do you think your fans have reacted to your newest album?
Dustin: I haven’t really heard any complaints or anything.

Kat: What’s your favorite city to play in?
Dustin & Toppei: CHICAGO!

Kat: (laughs) Yeah, right, you’re just saying that. Seriously where?
Teppei: It’s hard to say, probably Atlanta.
Dustin: (Agrees)

Kat: Do you have any pre or post show rituals?
Dustin: We might stretch a bit and sometimes I warm up my voice.

Teppei: Yeah but other than that, not really…

Dustin: I like to take a piss. You know? Because it’s the worst thing when you’re out on stage and you really have to pee, its annoying.

Kat: Who are your favorite bands to play and tour with?
Dustin: Hot Water Music, that was a great tour.

Kat: Alright, guys, now for the important question. Boxers or briefs?
Dustin: Boxerbriefs.

Teppei: Yeah, boxerbriefs.

Kat: What are boxerbriefs? I’m not familiar with those.
Thrice: They’re not quite boxers, but they’re not as tight as briefs.

Kat: I noticed that one of your songs tonight had an extended ending.
Dustin: Yeah.

Teppei:Two of them did, actually.

Kat: When did you add those?
Dustin: It was after the record came out, and we added more to the songs, so that they had harder endings. (Plays a line on the guitar he has been messing around on throughout the interview) Hey, man, what song is that?

Teppei:(listens) I don’t know, play it

Kat: Isn’t that AFI?
Dustin: No, I know what you’re thinking of, but no…

Kat: What’s your most embarrassing moment?
Dustin: Oh, man, I really can’t think of one right now.

Teppei: Me neither.

Kat: Well keep thinking about it, I’m going to come back to that one. There is no escaping that question.

Kat: Is “The Artist and the Ambulance” based on a real life experience?
Dustin: Oh, no, I got the inspiration for it from a book by Al Burian called The Burn Collector.

Kat: What is that about?
Dustin: It’s a collection of entries, like a journal.

Kat: Is that one of your favorite books?
Dustin: Yeah, I liked it a lot.

Kat: You write all the lyrics, right? Or is it a group effort?
Dustin: I write the lyrics.

Kat: What’s a song that holds a special meaning to you?
Dustin: There’s not really one particular song overall, its more like one song will be important to you one day because you’re feeling one way, and another song would be better for another day. It really just depends on what’s going on in your life at that time.

Kat: What’s your favorite 80’s movie?
Teppei: TOP GUN!!

Dustin: Rad.

Kat: What’s that about?
Dustin: It’s a skate movie. A lot of skate movies I liked to watch. Hmmm and I guess The Goonies.

Kat: You know, I’ve never seen The Goonies.
Dustin: WHAT?!

Teppei: You’ve seen Top Gun, right?!

Kat: Yeah.
Teppei: Good.

Kat: Alright, I said I come back to it. Embarrassing moments!
Dustin: Well, let me think. I used to fall a lot on stage.

Kat: You mean trip and fall?
Dustin: Yeah, that was pretty embarrassing. Other than that…when I was in the third grade I was in a play and I fell asleep on stage.

Kat: What?
Dustin: Yeah, I was playing a character that was supposed to be sleeping and I really fell asleep.

Kat: What play was it?
Dustin:

Kat: What about you, Toppei?
Dustin: It was some Charlie Brown play. I was supposed to be sleeping when the phone rang and then I was supposed to answer it. It rang once, but I didn’t answer it. So it rang again, and I still didn’t answer it. So the girl on the other line just started talking anyway, and I realized what was happening like “oh! uh–” and then I picked up the phone. Can you believe that I still remember the name of that girl who was in the play with me?

Teppei: I can’t really think of anything. Well, okay back in high school, I wasn’t very into school at all. And somehow, I got nominated for Homecoming King. That was pretty embarrassing.

Kat: Why?
Teppei: Because I didn’t want to do it, I wasn’t a part of that school activity really. And I had to do these lunch activities, which I hated. I eventually had to contact the teacher that was in charge of it and have her take me off.

Kat: How do you think your music has evolved since you first started playing?
Dustin: Our music is a lot harder now, less sucky.

Teppei: When we started, we all had much different musical tastes than we do now.

Kat: What was there before Identity Crisis?
Teppei: We had an EP, which is basically impossible to get a hold of now because there are only a small number of copies out.

Kat: What’s your favorite thing about playing live?
Dustin: There are a lot of things that go into having a good show, but I think the thing that tops them all is when you have a good audience. Which doesn’t explain why tonight was such a good show, because besides some people most of the audience wasn’t really getting into it.

Kat: Do you ever jump into the pit or anything?
Dustin: No, not really. I’m a big guy, I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody doing any stage dives. When we played with the Descendents, I got in the pit, because I’ve liked the Descendents for a long time.

Kat: Did the kids act differently because of who you are?
Dustin: Some came up to me and told me “We came here to see the Descendents, and you guys!”

Kat: Where are you off to next?
Thrice: Milwaukee, but tomorrow’s our day off. We’re leaving at eleven o’clock tonight, and tomorrow we get to stay in the hotel.

Kat: What do you do on your days off?
Teppei: Anything, go see a movie, anything to get out of the tour bus.

Kat: Who is your favorite Chicago band?
Dustin: Screeching Weasel.

Kat: So, we were talking about how short your sets were tonight. Is there any chance that we might see Thrice headlining their own tour in the future?
Thrice: Yes, actually, somewhere during next April/May/June.

Kat: Yes! You’re going to make a stop in Chicago, right?
Dustin: Yeah, but we probably wouldn’t play here at the Aragon Ballroom…

Kat: Possibly a smaller venue like the Metro? You remember Metro right?
Dustin: Yeah, we played it last year. But the Aragon is a lot bigger and the stage is a lot higher.

Special Thanks to: Dustin & Toppei of Thrice Nick, the HOT tour manager (Yeah, I said it!) Island Records Bryan from Ska, Punk, and Other Junk Sam & Joanna