"Deadbolt" became a "word-of-mouth hit" for the band and quickly became a fan favourite, with many requests for the song being shouted at the band's live performances. As a result of this, however, the bandmembers of Thrice began to expressed dislike at the song and its popularity, and at times refused to play the song live, before ultimately dropping the song (as well as the band's older material) from their setlist for a period of time, as the bandmembers got sick of hearing requests to play the song. Bassist Ed Breckenridge stated that Thrice preferred playing new songs than repeatedly playing older songs/popular songs. “It’s fun for us to play stuff that’s current to what we enjoy. Sometimes we have to dig deep to remember where we were when we wrote ‘Deadbolt’ because we’ve played it eight million times now.” He also said that while he liked "parts of the song", he did not think it was a good idea to "mix pop punk and metal" and that "Deadbolt" offered him little in terms of musical dynamics. However, performances of the song made their way onto the band's live albums Live at the House of Blues and Anthology, and the song was played during the band's final show before their hiatus in 2012.
