Last night Rzhude sang, perhaps for the last time with us, a selection of songs that took us down the cobbled street of memory, stopping under streetlights to reflect on the times gone by. Our songs were inflected with a new fondness. We hung onto every word, clung to every note, clasped the choruses tighter to our chests. Brigade Street — twice over. State of Mine — unplayed in nearly five years. Between the Lines. And Holy Jose — sung with more mischief than ever before.

Farewells are not easy if you have spent eleven years on the road, playing, grooving, hoping, making, celebrating, ruing… Our shared history puts a price on the nostalgia of the past, the weight of the present and the promise of the future.

But farewells are inevitable. And they are a reminder of the present that we must acknowledge and the future in which we must be present.

The Rzhude Decade — all eleven years of it — was the most important one in the history of Thermal And A Quarter. Four albums, hundreds of live appearances, three overseas tours and hours of jamming and toil. It was a decade of the discovery of infinite possibilities.

Here’s to the next!

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