Most of the fans who weren't open-minded enough to allow the band to experiment abandoned them when Vheissu came out. So basically, most of Thrice's current fans, who were there pre-Vheissu, are former Warped Tour kids, who decided that they were ready for music outside of the modern "punk" scene, at the same time Thrice started playing music that didn't fit into that box.
That's a good analysis. I think it's easy to dread when heavier bands that are popular with a young crowd start "experimenting" or "maturing", because those words are often used as code for "turning into old farts who can't turn out a high-energy performance any more". it's true that some bands go soft and don't do it in an interesting way, but I've always respected the ones who can be eclectic
and sound good doing it, because you just don't know what's gonna happen.
Maybe it makes
me an old fart, but I'm starting to feel like rock and roll is over, at least in the sense of judging an album by how much you can headbang to it or how awesome the guitar solos are, whatever. I still appreciate bands that can still rock out with some creative flair, but to break into my top tier, you have to be good at the mellow and/or experimental stuff as well, and that generally means you need to explore instrument options beyond just the typical drums/bass/guitar combo. (Unless you have some really outlandish pedals/distortion effects to play with, I guess.) To see a band start doing this and then sort of back off from it just baffles me.
