Ride at Brooklyn Steel
photo by P Squared

Ride played Brooklyn Steel w/ Spirit of the Beehive (pics, setlist, video)

It’s a great feeling to see a band 30 years into their career and be excited to hear songs off their new album. Ride‘s This is Not a Safe Place is their best album since 1992’s Going Blank Again that really finds them getting that spark back and going new places as well. I was not the only one at Brooklyn Steel to feel this way — the new album’s “Future Love,” “Repetition” and “Shadows Behind the Sun” got almost as much applause as classics like “OX4” and “Taste.”

There is a real chemistry between these four — Mark Gardner and Andy Bell’s harmonies (which still sound amazing) and guitar interplay are crucial but so is the rhythm section of bassist Steve Queralt and amazing drummer Loz Colbert — and they are as good as I remember them being back in the day. As we’ve noted before, Ride really transcend the shoegaze tag live — they’re really just a great psychedelic rock band that owe as much to The Byrds as they do My Bloody Valentine.

Ride played eight of This Is Not a Safe Place‘s 12 songs (album-opening instrumental “R.I.D.E” was their walkout music) and, while I wished they’d played “Clouds of Saint Marie” instead of “Fifteen Minutes” or “Kill Switch,” it all sounded excellent, especially “Future Love” (maybe their best pop song since “Twisterella”), the widescreen “Shadows Behind the Sun” and atmospheric “End Game.” There was no shortage of classics either, including “Leave Them All Behind,” “Chrome Waves,” “OX4,” “Vapour Trail,” and a killer three-song encore of “Seagull,” “Dreams Burn Down” and “Chelsea Girl.”

They only did one song off 2017’s Weather Diaries (the album’s best song, “Lanoy Point”) and there was, of course, “Drive Blind” with it’s extended noise jam section that had many people around me with their fingers in their ears. Ride may be nearing 50 but they remain a vital, vitally loud band. If you’re going to see them on this tour, bring earplugs.

I missed openers Spirit of the Beehive, but our photographer caught them and pictures from the evening are in the gallery above. Ride’s setlist and a few videos from Brooklyn Steel are below.

SETLIST: Ride @ Brooklyn Steel 9/21/2019
Jump Jet
Future Love
Leave Them All Behind
Fifteen Minutes
Eternal Recurrence
Taste
Chrome Waves
Shadows Behind The Sun
Repetition
Lannoy Point
End Game
All I Want
OX4
Twisterella
Vapour Trail
Drive Blind
Kill Switch

Encore:
Seagull
Dreams Burn Down
Chelsea Girl

photos by P Squared