I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: December 7, 2024] Ride

I’ve known of (and enjoyed some of) Ride’s music for decades.  I was never a huge fan, but there were a few songs that I liked a lot.

Last year, Ride played a show with the Charlatans, but a snowstorm kept me away.  So here was another chance to see them.

I didn’t realize that they had been broken up for 21 years when they released their reunion album in 2017.  Here it is 7 years after that and they’re still a going concern.

I didn’t know really anything since they’d reunited, so I didn’t really care what they played–I assumed they’d play the few songs that I did know since those were the hits.

And I really enjoyed the new songs quite a lot–they were some of my favorites of the night.  A guy up front (who was bouncing and dancing the whole show) shouted how great the new album was and the band got a kick out of it with Mark Gardener thanking him for the affirmation (they later gave him a pick and a setlist I believe).

I didn’t realize that there were two lead singers in the band (this gets to the crux of why they broke up, with Andy Bell trying to move the band in a different direction).

So Gardener sang most of the songs with Bell singing a little less than half, I guess?  Andy Bell was wearing a short that said What’s More Punk Than the Public Library which I immediately bought (to help the Mount Pleasant Public Library).   I could hear the difference between singers (I think of Gardener as that “voice” of the band, but it’s not like Bell’s voice was radically different.  I also liked that Gardener switched between no guitar, guitar and bass throughout the night.

Most impressive I guess is that even after the breakup and getting back together, it’s still the same four guys.  Bassist Steve Queralt (who had some killer bass lines on a few songs) and Loz Colbert were kind of in the back (with Bell and Gardener up front) but it seemed to sit the rhythm section well.  I’m guessing that Colbert was triggering some synths and other sounds.

After the first or second song, someone shouted “Seagull” one of their biggest hits and a song that of course they were going to play.  I’m assuming people shushed him because he didn’t say it again.

In the middle of the set, Andy announced that the next song was for someone who was at their 100th Ride show!  I was pretty shocked.  I mean, I’ve seen a bunch of bands 5 times, but 100 Ride shows?  Fascinating.   That did mean that we got one more song than most of the other shows though, so that’s cool.

The newer songs are a bit less shoegazey and a bit more direct.  A song like Peace Sign is pretty catchy and sets a good mood for the crowd.

They played one song from the despised (by critics) Tarantula but none from the prior album Carnival of Light (the one that seemed to foretell the band’s split).   Black Nite Crash is about as far from the typical Ride sound as I could imagine (no shoegaze and very jittery) and aside from it not sounding like Ride, I really liked it.

They only played two songs from Going Blank Again (what I think of as the biggest Ride album, although I could be wrong about that).  I’m kind of surprised they didn’t play Twisterella, but heck they only have so much time.

They ended the set with two songs from Nowhere, and the crowd which was already pretty intense was berserk for Vapour Trail and of course Seagull.

They’d only played for about 75 minutes so I assumed there’d be an encore or two.  They actually played three (can we please stop chanting one more song if bands are going to play more than one?)

It was an interesting encore with a song from the new album, a classic from Going Blank Again and the first song they ever wrote together, Chelsea Girl (is it cool to write a song with the same title as a Velvet Underground song as your first song?, I guess so)

The set was great and I had a really fun time.  I’m still not a huge fan, but I enjoyed the set a lot more than I anticipated.

1. Monaco ¥
2. Last Night I Went Somewhere to Dream ¥
3. Dreams Burn Down ♠
4. Future Love Ø
5. Last Frontier ¥
6. I Came to See the Wreck ¥
7. Unfamiliar ⇔
8. Sennen ⇔
9. Lannoy Point ‰
10. Peace Sign ¥
11. Black Nite Crash ∉
12. Cool Your Boots ⊗
13. Vapour Trail ♠
14. Seagull ♠
    encore
15. Light in a Quiet Room ¥
16. Leave Them All Behind ⊗
17. Chelsea Girl ©

© Ride EP (1990)
♠ Nowhere (1990)
⇔ Today Forever EP (1991)
⊗ Going Blank Again (1992)
∉ Tarantula (1996)
‰ Weather Diaries (2017)
Ø This is Not a Safe Place (2019)
¥ Interplay (2024)