As the members of Ride take up their positions to open the show at The Gov (29 November), Mark Gardener (singer, guitarist and co-frontman) comments: "It's been a long time Adelaide."
1992 is a very long time ago now, but that was the last time this group played in Adelaide just after the release of their second album, 'Going Blank Again', arguably at the height of their popularity.A couple of years earlier, following a couple of EPs, they consolidated their early, raw, stripped-down sound on their full-length debut, the bleakly titled 'Nowhere'. Lyrically, this album exemplified all the pathos and angst of being on the cusp of adulthood and standing on the precipice of an unknown future.
They were immediately grouped into a movement labelled 'shoegaze', as much for the hunched-over stance while playing as for the use of effects pedals and musical distortion.
This album was a snapshot of where they were at the time. Being 18 or 19 years old, they were still developing as artists. Unfortunately, the ambitious musical directions they chose to explore after this album were less interesting for me personally at the time.
Internal frictions led to the band parting ways several years later.
Their celebratory performance of the album begins with the looping raga of 'Seagull' that by the song's end has devolved into chaos.
Andy Bell (singer, guitarist and other co-frontman) appears reserved or tired and Mark clarifies that Andy and drummer Loz Colbert had only just flown in while he and Steve Queralt (bass) had spent some of the afternoon at Brighton Beach.
After the fast paced 'Kaleidoscope', Mark tells us: "We're going to have to slow it down because we're older now."
In opposition to the youthful transient introspection of 'In A Different Place' and 'Polar Bear' (amongst others), Mark is cheerful, in the moment, even when he sings – "sometimes you must accept that you can't always get what you want," during the simmering, distorted whirlpool of 'Dreams Burn Down' or during the bouncy, sinister 'Decay' with the haunting refrain "we die".
Andy's first entirely lead vocal for 'Paralysed' comes suitably late in the album with enough time given to warm up and step forward into the light.
Andy follows this with 'Vapour Trail', the last song on the actual album, very much a fan favourite, always seeming somewhat of an anomaly; and similarly here, it's an uplifting anthem after the journey of despair that preceded it although I don't know if that was what many in the audience were actually thinking.
The band don't leave the stage just yet, continuing with some contemporary EP tracks, starting with 'Taste', their most pop-sounding song for the night.
The set does end with the experimental, drawn-out performance of 'Nowhere', a song inexplicably left off the album proper during which Andy elicits squeals and muted feedback from his guitar, and it's as if The Doors had come from Oxford, England. There is a sudden crescendo and the band is at their wildest before the song winds down and they leave the stage.
The encore begins with something very different to what came before; 'Lannoy Point', an upbeat, dancy, almost New Romantic song from belated reunion album 'Weather Diaries' from 2017, and even though there is likely unfamiliarity with the song, the audience embrace it.
'Future Love' is another more contemporary song, from their most recent album, 2019's 'This Is Not A Safe Place'. Mark is gracious, tentatively promising they will be back again next year to commemorate 'Going Blank Again' and then plays a well received 'Twisterella'.
'OX4' sounds like it has been taken apart and put back together again, as though it was being played during the 'Nowhere' sessions. The thundering workout of 'Kill Switch', with appropriate accompanying strobe lighting, is their most extreme song of the night.
The set ends with Mark doing some crowd work and padding ("I don't normally talk much but there are some technical difficulties") and the final song is the classic 'Leave Them All Behind', which opened their second album.
This was a perfect place to end the show, a song that at the time it was released indicated a change for the band and now can be read as a teaser for the band's return that will hopefully happen again soon.
