Thrice, courtesy.

SACRAMENTO — Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue admits he didn’t quite know what to expect when the Southern California band rekindled its 2002 sophomore record, The Illusion of Safety, played the album front to back at a handful of shows into December.

“We had to re-learn those songs, and a lot of them we hadn’t played in years; one of them we’d never played live,” Kensrue said n a chat at Sacramento’s Aftershock festival earlier this fall. “It was a trip; it was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be once we figured out all the parts.”

Guitarist Teppei Teranishi agreed that re-opening the book to that era was both challenging and fulfilling.

“I just didn’t stop on that record, I don’t know, youthful energy I guess that I just don’t have any more,” Teranishi said, laughing, “I kinda had to re-learn how to play guitar in that way. I feel like I’ve changed so much as a guitar player.”

An unexpected challenge of bringing Illusion back to the stage was musical logistics. Many of the songs had guitar parts of various tunings. Live, that would mean switching guitars out mid-song multiple times. Instead, Kensrue opted to install a gizmo on his guitar that allowed him to drop the running with the flip of a switch. He said it was the only way Thrice could have played the songs without awkward breaks.

Kensrue said even the setting of the gigs took some getting used to.

“[The songs] were made when we were playing tiny club shows and everyone’s, like, pressed onto the stage,” he said. “It’s a very different feeling playing it that separated [from a crowd].”

Comparing Thrice’s songwriting process from Illusion to today, Kensrue said the quartet has been fortunate to have the same freedom to explore whatever creative direction it wants. Even when the band was on a major label and had to deal with outside influences, Thrice didn’t experience any horror stories.

So naturally, the band had all the freedom it needed to explore what it was doing back in 2002 and reimagine it for 2022.

“We’re trying to refigure out what we were even thinking when we did this key change,” Kensrue said. “We put two parts back to back even though they’re 30 beats per minute different and in a different key, and we’d figure out a weird way to make it work.”

The band also leaned into unorthodox song structures, avoiding the more functional verse/chorus arrangement to add unexpected divergences that didn’t necessarily make sense.

“As we’ve gravitated toward some more traditional song formats, it’s also cool to remember that and think about how we can reincorporate some of that stuff too,” Kensrue said.

Thrice recorded its 11th album, Horizons/East, during pandemic lockdowns before releasing it in September 2021. On the strength of “Scavengers,” “Robot Soft Exorcism” and “Summer Set Fire to the Rain,” the group delivered a solid offering. Much of the recorded was made remotely, from each of the members’ homes, Teranishi said.

“It was slow going. It was such a weird time,” Kensrue said.

Some members had immunocompromised family members, which added a degree of caution. Teranishi said the band finally came together late in the process to get the record finished. It wasn’t a dramatic shift, Kensrue added, because the musicians had previously become more comfortable with writing on their own.

“We went into the previous two records having a decent amount of time where we weren’t all in the same place” Kensrue said. “We developed this thing where we were able to share these parts, then get together and jam on them, then take them back home. So it was a little bit of a hybrid.”

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.