A
bit further to go than I’d have liked for this one, but needs must when gig
schedules clash; I’ve been on board with the post-reunion journey of Oxonian
90’s shoegaze innovators Ride, making up for lost time to a certain extent with
a band I should have really liked and seen more back in the day. Since their
2016 reformation, they’ve been full-on noses to the grindstone, this tour pushing
their third second-coming album “Interplay”. A fine collection of
well-constructed tuneage with distinct nods to their history, this, striking a
delicate balance between their effects-led shimmering wall-of-noise material
and their difficult yet more song-focussed proto-Britpop/ post punk, so I was
up for the tour. Unfortunately, their Bristol SWX date clashed with last
Saturday’s Men They Couldn’t Hang Thekla gig, last time out, and I’d already
booked tix for that, so this ticket to Ride came with a ride down to the
next-nearest venue, down on the South Coast!
Happily, I had company in Ride uber-fan and 90’s Lev friend Robynne, whose husband wouldn’t take her! I picked her up just after 5 for a sunny South Coast drive, taking a wrong turn but eventually finding an open air car park near the venue. Got in 20 minutes after doors to find the auditorium almost deserted, and a house right barrier spot very easy to come by! Yikes! Chatted with fellow front-rower Chas, over from Singapore (!) to visit his Kent-domiciled parents and catch this one, before openers Junodream, on an 8 to a small smattering of folk. I’d picked up their debut album “Pools Of Colour”, finding it pleasant but unmemorable, and for me this set largely followed suit; opener “The Beach” was a meandering piece of unobtrusive dreampop, “Kitchen Sink Drama”, next up, was a more urgent drum-propelled early Death Cab-esque brooding US alt-bedsit pop number, and “Death Drive” a looser-limbed 80’s slice of baggy trip hop. To be fair, vocalist Ed Vyvyan regularly attacked his task with impressive gusto, particularly on the crescendo outros, although his claims of being the best band in the world (or second best to Ride) seemed somewhat far fetched. Closer “Nobody Wants You”, with its intricate upbeat strumalong recalling Real Estate or Rolling Blackouts, was the best of a nice enough set. Damning them with faint praise, I know, but there you go…
Unfortunately, the place still hadn’t really filled that much, and the auditorium seemed only half full (with the balcony shut and blanked off as well!) by the time Ride themselves took the stage at 9 to a suitably dramatic fanfare music backdrop. The straightahead indie rock stylings of newie “Monaco” kicked things into gear, although initially it seemed that the mix was a bit too polished and crystal clear, at the expense of the “sonic cathedrals of noise” that Ride were/ are so renowned for. An early “Dreams Burn Down” suffered particularly, its’ usual ball-crunching post-hook crescendo sounding sadly sedate, the thin sound rendering this usually mighty number a little ponderous, and I pondered this during the properly epilepsy-inducing strobe assault of a nevertheless dramatic “Killswitch”; have Ride eschewed their usual pedal-stomping modus operandi to accentuate the songcraft of the new material, but in the process lost that thrilling sonic assault?
Happily,
after an eerie, stripped-back reading of morose newie “I Came To See The
Wreck”, the upbeat groove of “Twisterella” marked an ironic turning point, the
balance between the crispness of sound and full-on thrilling wall-of-sound much
better, as the hitherto taciturn band, initially playing within themselves,
seemed to really warm to their task. The clipped, undulating hook and hypnotic
krautrock beat of “Lannoy Point” was easily the best thus far, but that was
eclipsed in short order by the crashing intro and sweeping strident hook of a
brilliant “Taste”, seeing me give it loads in my front row spot. That’s
what we’re here for!
The set denouement maintained this quality control; “Cool Your Boots” was all shimmering oscillation and cascading drums, “Vapour Trail” superbly widescreen and windswept as ever, and “Seagull” a barnstorming psych workout to close out a proper set of two halves. First encore “Light In A Quiet Room” featured a juxtaposition of the delicate choral harmony between main men Mark Gardener and Andy Bell and the noisy crescendo outro, before the lugubrious and meandering “Leave Them All Behind” required 2 takes (Bell labelling the short abortive first start as the “Tik Tok, short attention span” version! The embryonic heady rush of “Chelsea Girl” rounded off a damn fine overall set, the impressively bearded roadie then handing me a list, then we bade farewell to Chas and fellow front rower Ian, there with his son, before a quick and chatty drive up the A34/ M4 beat route saw me dropping Robynne back just after midnight. So, a slow burner, this, but one that really built up a head of steam and finished strongly, and was definitely worth the lengthy trip!
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