Ride – 3Olympia, Dublin – Live Review
by Killian Laher

We are in the midst of a shoegaze/nineties resurgence with the re-emergence of Slowdive, Swervedriver and now Ride, for their first visit to Ireland since supporting the Cure in 2019.  Junodream were the support band this time out, who were well received by the crowd.  Kitchen Sink Drama had echoes of Radiohead while Death Drive heavily channelled the nineties with its shuffled beats.

Far from a nostalgia-fest, Ride have released 3 albums since reforming in 2014.  There was plenty of newer material with Monaco and Andy Bell-sung Last Frontier having strong echoes of New Order.  Portland Rocks and I Came To See The Wreck sounded strong, though much of the new material breezed by agreeably without making much impression.  But it was older material that most of the fans were there for, and the heavy drum beats of Dreams Burn Down was the first of many old favourites to be unleashed on the night.  But it wasn’t until the spiralling guitars of Twisterella that the night really kicked into gear.  They unleashed Taste, and an elongated Cool Your Boots got one of the biggest reactions of the night.  Maybe it was the slightly muddy mix, but the guitars didn’t really hit hard enough.  For a muscular version of Vapour Trail, Mark Gardener and Bell’s harmonies were completely drowned out by the mass woah-woahing from the crowd, before their set rounded off with Seagull.

The encore kicked into gear with the slowly building Light In A Quiet Room before Leave Them All Behind – but the longed for guitar assault on the latter never quite arrived.  They finished with a brawny version of Chelsea Girl where finally the guitars seemed to let loose.  However, as nineties reunion shows go, and there have been a lot of them, this was probably the next rung down.  They are a bunch of Rides, though.