Reformed
Oxford shoegaze/ pre-Britpop roustabouts Ride are on the road again… A band
whom I liked very much back in the day, at least until their thrilling shoegaze
sound morphed into less innovative baggy/ Britpop and unfortunate band infighting (one
apocryphal story of that time seeing co-writers Andy Bell and Mark Gardener
fall out so hard, that they insisted their own tunes not be put on the same
side of Ride’s 3rd album as the other bloke’s!), the times I’d seen
them since their 2016 reunion (particularly that June 2018 Cure undercard
appearance, gig 1,095, when their entrance music alone won them Band Of The
Day!) made me actually wish I’d liked them much more back then! So when this
tour – a 30th Anniversary run-through of their stunning debut album
“Nowhere” – was announced, I was all over it like a rash. Got me a ticket to
Ride!
I
wasn’t the only one either –old Level 3 buddy Robynne and her slightly
reluctant daughter Tia were going too, so I picked them up just before 6,
anticipating some difficulty parking in this industrial estate-located venue
but finding the last spot down a nearby side-road to dump the motor and join
the queue. Grabbed barrier spots, house right, and chatted before openers bdrmm
at 7.45. Their first 2 numbers were a bit gruesome; inarticulate guitar howls
and pounding drums with not a hint of a tune, and although they settled down
and played some atmospheric, gloomy and gothy post-punk noise with occasional hints
of Cure-like bass and Diiv-esque monotone driving rhythm, they only had a
couple of numbers (the 3rd one, and their last, best number, which
had hints of the headliners’ “Drive Blind” about it) which seemed to feature
those old staples of tune, verse and chorus. Some brief flashes of promise
amidst all the murk, but so far they seem more interested in coaxing “interesting”
noises out of their instruments a la My Bloody Valentine (viz. the bassist
kneeling to generate feedback from his monitor) than doing something so prosaic
as writing songs!
So,
from the (faintly) ridiculous, to the utterly sublime… the place rapidly filled
up, seeming busier than a lot of sold-out gigs I’ve been to of late, and
expectation was palpable. The lights smashed to black and Ride joined us at
8.45, vocalist Mark Gardener looking somewhat taken aback by the reception as
he greeted us with, “good evening Bristol! Wow! We’re gonna play “Nowhere”…” thence
launching into the opening guitar squeal of “Seagull”, and we were away…
Without
wishing to kick off with hyperbole, Ride were fucking awesome tonight, easily
the best I’ve seen them since their reunion. They were “on it” from note one,
celebrating the 2-year-postponed 30th anniversary of their 1990
debut “Nowhere” which, when it arrived back in the day on the coattails of a
trio of frantic, murky yet thrilling EPs, defined the “shoegaze” genre with
MBV’s shimmering, reverb-heavy soundscapes aligned with the epic, stately
post-punk “rockist” sound of Echo And The Bunnymen, sweeping and swooping in majestic
and grandiose fashion. However, to just harp on about “soundscapes” and
atmosphere does this album a disservice; simply put, it’s a collection of
superb songs which have comfortably stood the test of time, and which were
given full shining justice tonight. The sound was spot on; the swathes of
guitar feedback were actually dialled down, allowing Andy Bell’s inverted
Indian/ psychedelic guitar licks, almost Byrdsian “5th
Dimension”-like in their baroque intricacy, to really shine. And the band were
clearly loving it up there, Gardener teasing the frenzied crowd for more
cheers, wearing a wry smile of silent satisfaction throughout, and constantly
complimenting not only the audience but the venue itself (“this place is really
great, really echoey and gothy!” and “do they really make Marbles here?” being
a couple of asides).
Highlights?
All of them! But particularly the elegiac march of “In A Different Place”, the
languid majesty, cascading riffery and iconic drumbeat of my set highlight
“Dreams Burn Down”, the gloriously sweeping “Paralysed”, the mesmeric, joyful
and lengthy denouement to a stratospheric “Vapour Trail” and a frenzied,
mosh-inducing but singalong “Taste”. The maleficent brooding menace and
extended psych feedback finale to “Nowhere” rounded off as swift an hour set as
I’ve seen of late, with a 6 (!) song encore featuring excellent newie “Lannoy
Point”, the anthemic “OX4” (the crowd reaction prompting Gardener’s thanks for
“taking this song to another level”) and the lugubrious, lengthy closer “Leave
Them All Behind” taking us up to 10.30 and the finale of a stunning set,
Gardener commenting, “let’s do this again… but not in 30 years!”
A
relatively easy set list, but a horrendous drive home thanks to a motorway
closure, a subsided diversion and getting stuck behind a lorry, so home at
midnight. Bah! But worth it for Ride on this form. Superb gig!
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