After taking 30 years to return to Adelaide on their last tour in late 2022, it has been a relatively quick turn around for RIDE to return.
This time around, they're down under promoting the release of return-to-form album 'Interplay' earlier this year. The added bonus of Mercury Rev in tow meant this twofer was certainly not to be missed.There's two ways of thinking about the Mercury Rev's inclusion on the tour; the first being we were appreciative of the choice of support (as opposed to the usual wildcard of a relatively unknown artist); the second being there was certainly a feeling of disappointment in only experiencing a set of somewhat edited highlights.
The incongruity of musical styles was apparent from the moment they walked onstage at Hindley Street Music Hall (8 August) and commenced their accomplished set, an other-worldliness and magicality in their presentation, and given more stage time Mercury Rev's performance may have potentially eclipsed that of the headliners.
While their set mainly consisted of a selection of 'Deserter's Songs', a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Love Sick' precedes the centrepiece of an extended 'Tides Of The Moon' during which frontman Jonathan Donahue theatrically conducts the band's closing bombast leading into the melancholy 'Holes' and then mimes playing an absent theremin.
'Opus 40' builds to a closing improvisational freakout, before they rein it in for their final song, the sentimental soundtrack of 'The Dark Is Rising' ending in equal musical fanfare.
After the intimacy of Mercury Rev's close stage set up, in the break between sets, the road crew peel away the additional stage equipment leaving a more open style setting in which the headliners play.
Given they celebrated their full-length debut 'Nowhere' on their last Australian tour, and a promise was made to return and play the sophomore 'Going Blank Again', you could be forgiven for thinking RIDE were a band out to present their past glories.
Frontman Mark Gardener has dismissed his reunion with bandmates Andy Bell (guitar and co-lead vocals), Steve Queralt (bass) and Loz Colbert (drums) as being nostalgic; this is backed up by the latest album, 2024's 'Interplay', being represented all over their set list.
The previous two transitional albums ('Weather Diaries' and 'This Is Not A Safe Place') do get one song apiece, but the new album dominates a set that includes three each from the first two aforementioned albums. The explosive 'Seagull' from 'Nowhere' is an appropriate opener and following on, 'Portland Rocks' sounds like it could have come off one of the early contemporary EPs.
Early in the set some eclectic choices are made apparent with 'All I Want' hinting at a baggy dance direction taken on the 'Weather Diaries' album, and with the simple, pulsing, catchy 'Peace Sign' from 'Interplay'.
Although Mark makes a later apology for what he calls an experimental set, it's a considered one, 'Twisterella' appropriately placed following the funky drummer beat and catchy guitar riff of 'Jump Jet' and the moody and tense intro 'I Came To See The Wreck', before the treat of non-album single 'Unfamiliar' is performed as paced garage rock.
The pounding, slow-march waltz of 'Last Night I Went Somewhere To Dream' precedes the straight up rock & roll of 'Black Nite Crash', a fine demonstration of Andy Bell's guitar heroics.
'Going Blank Again' album closer 'OX4' leads into the closing coda of the 'Nowhere' album's bleak 'Paralysed' and the contrasting perennial teen romance of 'Vapour Trail' accompanied by an audience sing-along.
Over an hour and a half have passed, but it seems much shorter before the encore opens with the ambient chiming raga of 'Light In A Quiet Room', this spacey, dreamy song an example of the further expansion of RIDE's musical vocabulary that leads into the slow build finale of the classic 'Leave Them All Behind', a fitting, inspiring close to an entirely satisfactory evening.
