The latest gig on our A to Z Musical Tour was ……
In this post we review RIDE, with support from Junodream
What seems a long, long time ago, Ride recorded one of best records to grace the shelves of this writer’s collection, when the album Nowhere burst into record stores in 1990. The tracks from that album were spellbinding in their beauty. The sound of dual guitars in harmony with the rhythm section of bass and drums. The lyrics were good, the instrumental sections even better.
A generation or more on, and the band released their latest album Interplay. The new album falls into a familiar category of ‘a grower’. The more you listen to each track the more it feels like they have captured the spirit of their 1990s self with a mid-2020s experienced flavour. The songs may have matured but they remain structured around the key components which made the early albums so memorable.
And so it was to SWG3 that we headed to hear them play a major selection of tracks from their latest LP, together with a mix of songs, primarily from Nowhere, but also from their catalogue of fine albums.
Taking the songs to the live setting though showcases the key strengths of the band.
Ride are all about the thunderous noise emanating from the guitars of Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, who also share vocal duties throughout the set. To the side of the stage and at the back, bassist Steve Queralt and Loz Colbert on drums keep a ferocious beat throughout the set.
Most of the setlist offers the audience the key ingredient that sets Ride apart from some of their former peers. The songs may ebb and flow through traditional chorus and verse, however almost without fail, at some point in the song they offer a sonic maelstrom of guitars with an almost psychedelic groove, supported in no small part by the crashing rhythmic drumming and a driving bass line.
The new tracks like Monaco, Last Frontier, I Came To See The Wreck and Light In A Quiet Room are all well received and will no doubt feature in future sets once this tour is over.
As you might expect, tracks from Nowhere, were met with as close to adoration as their fan base would allow. Dreams Burn Down, set the tone while Taste, Vapour Trail and Seagull cemented the reputation the album has for one of the best from this period of indie rock.
SWG3 was an ideal setting for this night of guitar orientated music. It was an intimate evening that reminds us yet again, how good a band Ride are.
Support Act
Junodream
One reason for heading early to gigs, well ahead of the stage time for the headliners, is to get a glimpse of, generally, new up and coming bands who you may never have heard of or seen.
Junodream fall into this category and, on the evidence of the short set before Ride, they are definitely a band we’d hope to hear and see more of.
They describe themselves as spacerock exponents. If that’s the case, then they can certainly pat themselves on the back for having delivered spatial sounds that filled the room with ease.
A tight unit of drums Jake Gidley, bass Will Ryder, two guitarists Tom Rea and Dougal Gray and a fine vocalist in Ed Vyvyan make up the band and their latest album Pools of Colour is highly recommended.
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