Thrice Announces ‘The Artist In The Ambulance’ 20th Anniversary Tour

Thrice has announced 20th anniversary European and UK tour for The Artist In The Ambulance. The band will be joined by Town Portal in Europe and Palm Reader in the UK for the 2024 run, which kicks off in Madrid and will wrap up in London on February 26.

“The Artist In The Ambulance has played such a huge part in the history of the band,” says Dustin Kensrue. “These songs have stood the test of time better than we could have known when we wrote them. But they’ve also subtly shifted and grown with us as we’ve played them at shows over the last 20 years, which is why it was so much fun to revisit them in the studio, and also why we are so excited to play the whole record live, especially for the first time in its entirety.”

From the moment Thrice emerged, the band threw wrenches in traditional genre tropes. Hardcore guitars? Meet emo vocals. Post-punk rhythms? Say hello to metal riffs. The group’s first two albums, 2000’s Identity Crisis and 2002’s The Illusion of Safety, introduced them to the tight-knit hardcore community, but also attracted math rock devotees and Warped Tour fans ready to belt out singer Dustin Kensrue’s heart-on-sleeve lyrics. So when the band made the jump to Island – a major label – it was unclear what would happen. Would Thrice maintain their sound? Or would the edges be inevitably sanded down in pursuit of something more immediately palatable?

Fans shouldn’t have worried. 2003’s breakthrough, The Artist in the Ambulance, showcased the band essentially doing more of what worked so well previously. Indeed, the dizzying, interplaying guitar lines of the title track give hints of metal undertones, while the melodic line and backing vocals are pure emo. “Paper Tigers” is undeniable hardcore metal, built around the militaristic pummel of double bass drum kicks and pained screams from Kensrue. But beneath this surface, the band can’t help but yank the tablecloth with riffs built on unexpected time signatures that would make Robert Fripp proud.

Listen to Thrice’s The Artist in the Ambulance.

The Artist In The Ambulance 20th Anniversary Tour Dates:
February
12 Madrid, Spain
13 Barcelona, Spain
15 Paris, France
16 Antwerp, Belgium
17 Tilburg, Netherlands
19 Berlin, Germany
20 Munich, Germany
21 Cologne, Germany
23 Bristol, UK
24 Manchester, UK
25 Glasgow, UK
26 London, UK