By the end of Thursday's first run, touring had become a chore. Rule recalled doing a pantomime clock-punching motion before going on stage, revealing the worst-case scenario possible for the band since the band members dropped out of Rutgers University as teenagers. Thursday was a dead-end job that most people still dream of, and Rickly said it left him feeling “underpaid and greedy.”
After the band broke up, Rule stayed busy as a session drummer, including a long stint with British boy band Wanted. Pedulla returned to steady gigs while working on the film, while Rickly's curiosity and playfulness led to a series of failures. His playful, conceptual hardcore supergroup United Nations received a cease-and-desist order from the actual United Nations. In 2013, Rickly was robbed at gunpoint, an incident that played a major role in “Someone Who Does Me.”,” It is a surrealist autobiographical story about kicking heroin through experimental treatment with the drug ibogaine. He's worked with No Devotion, a band featuring former members of Lostprophets, whose former frontman was convicted of child sex abuse, and has been busy with indie label Collect Records, which disbanded in 2015 amid anger at backer Martin Shkreli. .
By the time Thursdays reemerged after a hiatus in 2016, it had weathered the downturn of emo's third wave and stood on high moral ground. “They’ve been through the major label machine, but they’ve always kept their values intact,” says Jeremy Bolm of the hardcore band Touché Amoré.
“Full Collapse” served as a sonic touchstone not only for the thriving emo revival, but also for metal bands like Deafheaven. And despite all his struggles, Rickly, an active social media user who has forged friendships with writers, musicians, artists, poets and chefs, has ingratiated himself as a fixture in New York's art and food scenes.
Dan Ozzi, author of the 2021 book Sellout, which chronicles how major record labels chased funky bands with loyal followings, acknowledged that Rickly's social skills played a role in Thursday's continued relevance, but he also credited the band's songs for their continued relevance. He simply said he could endure it. “Many of my Thursday colleagues have aged like milk,” he said in an interview. He “goes to an emo perfume festival and realizes he's watching his 45-year-old friend sing about his murderous fantasies about his high school girlfriend.” Thursday, by contrast, “was always on a higher, more intellectual level.”
But like many bands of their era with bills to pay and reputations to maintain, Thursdays are little more than a sucker for emotional nostalgia. “I used to get really embarrassed saying, ‘We’re going to do ‘Full Collapse’ tonight,’” Rule admitted.