In recent
years, three of the biggest and best shoegaze bands (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive,
and Ride)
reformed, went on tour, and eventually released a new album. In each
case, I saw a live appearance before they'd released any new music,
then purchased their new album, and then have seen them live again.
In each case, the new album was no disappointment. With My Bloody
Valentine and Slowdive, the second show was markedly better than the
first, almost like the new album infused them with newfound energy or
confidence. I even gave the Slowdive show I saw a month ago an A+. However, I'd
already given Ride an A+ the first time I saw them (at Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2015), so my expectations for
this show were rather high.
Artist: Ride
Venue: Festsaal
Kreuzberg
Location: Berlin,
Germany
Date: 5 November 2017
Opening Act: Dead Horse
One
Setlist:
01. Lannoy Point
01. Lannoy Point
02. Charm Assault
03. Seagull
04. Weather Diaries
05. Taste
06. Dreams Burn Down
07. Pulsar
08. Cali
09. Twisterella
10. Impermanence
11. Lateral Alice
12. From Time to Time
13. Leave Them All
Behind
14. All I Want
15. OX4
16. Vapour Trail
17. Drive Blind
Encore:
18. Rocket Silver
Symphony
19. Grasshopper [with
Anton Newcombe]
20. Chelsea Girl
Dead Horse One
are a five-piece from France. They played a strong and entrancing set
that seemed like a perfect match for Ride. Other than the obvious
shoegazer link, they drew from the psych sound of bands like The Black Angels.
They would fit in quite well with at Levitation!
They let the keyboard take a lot of the melodic role while the two
guitarists created a dense, warm ball of sound. There were a few bits
of reverb-laden gothic rock guitar as well as moments of heavier,
darker
energy. I was actually disappointed that they only played for a terse
30 minutes.
[Dead Horse One with a guest
tambourinist.]
Ride
came out to the sound of the keyboard that opens their new album,
Weather Diaries.
They ended up playing most of the new album, but interspersed it with
several of the best tracks from their early classic albums and EPs.
Some of their new songs ("Charm Assault", "Cali")
have a distinct pop angle, but the
band has still retained their core
astral guitar sound. Early
in the set,
the band proved that they haven't shunned their roots by jamming out
an extended and captivating take on "Seagull". Other
particularly strong classic songs were "Dreams
Burn Down", "Leave Them All Behind", and "OX4".
The
incorporation of electronic elements is often a challenge on stage,
but the band handled it comfortably by treating their occasional
backing tracks as a mere backdrop to add just a bit of texture behind
the main attractions. "All I Want", a song that is on the
line of sounding like an annoying electronic pop remix, came through
surprisingly well. Although some of the other new songs felt a bit
weak and less energetic than the classics, there
were no duds, and I
appreciate their willingness to write and perform new material. We
were even treated to one of the first performances of their new
non-album single "Pulsar", released just a couple weeks
before the show.
By the time they got to "OX4" and "Vapour Trail",
the closing tracks of their best two albums, I was expecting the show
to end at any moment, but they didn't slow down. "Drive Blind"
sounded even better than the original studio version, and they did
their standard trick of extending with a long noise jam in the
middle.
[Ride.]
And
then came the encore. First they played "Rocket Silver
Symphony", which featured drummer Laurence Colbert's vocals in
the verses, and then they introduced a guest: Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre,
who happens to live in Berlin! They elected to play "Grasshopper",
a b-side from 1992 that they claimed never to have played live before
(although setlist.fm
disagrees).
Newcombe's guitar wasn't very high in the mix, so it wasn't entirely
obvious what he contributed, but it was still cool.
The quality of the mix was the one issue that distracted from a great
set. It is possible that my position near the back of the venue was
at fault, but throughout the entire show, the vocals were muddy and
indistinct. The bass lacked punch and the whole package lacked
clarity. It took away from some of the power and intricacy of their
performance.
The
new material might not be their best, but in some sense Weather
Diaries
seems like an alternate version of where they could have gone in
the mid-90s. After
the raw, early-era My Bloody Valentine ripoff of the Ride
and Play
EPs (both
1990),
the sublime shoegaze of Nowhere
(1990) and
the Fall
(1990) and Today
Forever
EPs (1991),
and the slightly more mainstream, power pop-inflected Going
Blank Again
(1992), what
if they had tried out an electronic edge instead of espousing generic
90s rock cliché and regurgitating bland 60s references? It
seems like everyone, including the band, would rather forget their
latter-day albums Carnival
of Light
(1994) and Tarantula
(1996). (They only played one song, "From
Time
to
Time", from the former and nothing from the latter.)
Despite a few flaws, Ride played a strong show, and I appreciated
that the kept going for two hours. It wasn't quite as perfect as the
last time I saw them, but I like their new album (and single), and
I'm glad they were willing and able to grow and still keep their best
elements.
[Ride with Anton Newcombe.]
Scores:
Dead Horse One: A-
Ride: A-
Smile
(compilation of Ride
and Play EPs): B
Nowhere
(with or without the Fall
EP appended): A+
Today Forever
EP: A+
Going Blank Again:
A-
Carnival of Light:
D
Tarantula:
D
Weather Diaries:
B+
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