Story and photos by Sophie Abeles.
Two years ago, The Thing, a four-piece indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, abandoned their leases and jobs for life on the road. Packing their belongings into one of those creepy white box trucks typically associated with production assistants and delivery men, four shaggy-haired musicians left their stationary lives behind and didn’t look back. Since then, The Thing has gone full speed ahead; releasing two full-length albums Here’s The Thing (2023) and The Thing Is (2024), and playing over one hundred shows across the United States and Europe. Seated beneath taxidermy deer and bison heads at Tom & Jerry’s bar in lower Manhattan, lead singer and bassist Zane Acord and guitarists Jack Bradley and Michael Carter reveal all the beauty and the bloodshed of life as a touring rock and roll band.
To understand The Thing’s trajectory from playing underground venues in New York to selling out shows across the country, we would have to start in March of 2022, when the band secured a slot in Our Wicked Lady’s annual Battle of the Bands competition. Alongside noteworthy locals like Dead Tooth and Been Stellar, The Thing cobbled together a set and played mostly unreleased music. After watching The Thing perform, the owners of Our Wicked Lady invited them to play at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, a moment Bradley says gave the band a kickstart in the industry. Once they recruited New York jazz drummer Lucas Ebeling – just in time for their Here’s The Thing album release show at Baby’s All Right and a three-month U.S. tour – Acron says the band decided to go all in. “We asked ourselves, ‘What would happen if we gave one hundred percent of our time and energy to the project we’ve sacrificed everything for?'”
To secure a cross-country tour, The Thing scouted bands in a handful of major cities which helped them build personal connections with local talent and venues nationwide. “We want to be a touring band forever. You make that happen by forcing the door open – by getting up and going,” Bradley explains. The band agrees they’re grateful to have met such a wide array of stellar musicians while on the road. Nonetheless, Bradley admits his Spotify queue remains dominated by New York indie bands – cultish icons like Native Son, Evolfo, and Godcaster. While on the topic of independent artists, Acron turns pensive, lamenting over close friends who have shuttered operations after quickly losing steam. Though The Thing shows no signs of taking their foot off the gas, they are wary of meeting a similar fate. To avoid burnout, the band never spends too much time on one aspect of the business and prioritizes creating space to dream up new music. “We’ll be driving on tour, sitting in silence for hours. You need silence to appreciate the music — to produce crazier ideas. I’m a firm believer in that,” Acron notes. After almost two years of touring, The Thing intends to take some time off to rest and focus on writing.
Like their approach to touring, The Thing doesn’t hesitate to release new music. Fueled by Bradley’s penchant for production and a recording style that embraces the first strokes of inspiration, The Thing released back-to-back albums starting in 2023 that won them a significant online following. Hard-hitting and unpretentious, the albums call upon the beloved rugged qualities of classic rock with new-age production and alt textures sprinkled throughout. Carter and Acron reminisce about growing up in upstate New York, where they learned to play electric guitar and fostered early affinities for bands like The Beatles, The Strokes, and The Black Keys. While he recognizes having a digital presence has contributed to their success, Carter remains a traditionalist, asserting that rock music is meant to be experienced in person: “You go to live shows with your community and take a break from whatever it is you’re going through. We want people to be able to let go and have an insane night.” Honoring their rock and roll forefathers, The Thing cultivates a unique stage presence by upping the volume and giving people the space to be weird.
Despite plans for well-deserved relaxation, The Thing is poised to maintain their upward momentum, hinting at the release of a self-titled album later this year. Before we part ways for the night, Acron shows me the album’s cover art. It’s a photo of the semi-nomadic band, seated in a bar beneath mounted taxidermy animal heads, smiling with half-drank Guinnesses in hand. Right at home.
See The Thing play live at Our Wicked Lady on Saturday, February 1st. Tickets here.
The post No Holds Barred: On the Road with The Thing first appeared on Alt Citizen.