photo by Ellen Qbertplaya

Ride & The Charlatans began their North American tour @ Webster Hall (pics, setlists, review)

January 31, 2023

photo by Ellen Qbertplaya

Ride and The Charlatans are an appealing double bill already, but having them both play classic albums in full makes it pretty unmissable. The “Between Nowhere” Tour, that has Ride playing their 1990 debut and The Charlatans playing their 1992 sophomore album, kicked off Monday night in NYC at Webster Hall. Photos from the whole night by Ellen Qbertplaya, plus both bands’ setlists and video, are in this post.

The bands are trading off who plays first depending on the date and city, and for the tour opener, The Charlatans started the night. Webster Hall was an appropriate place to do so as it’s not too far away from where the old Marquee Club, the location of their first US show, that gave the album Between 10th & 11th its name. Tim Burgess, looking youthful as ever, was all smiles as the band played the album all the way through for only the second time ever. In addition to the record, which includes UK hits “Weirdo” and “Tremelo Song,” they played a bunch of other favorites, including “Can’t Get Out of Bed,” “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over,” “Sproston Green,” “The Only One I Know,” and more, though a couple songs that were on the printed setlist (“North Country Boy” and “Blackened Blue Eyes”) were cut for time and “You’re So Pretty – We’re So Pretty” was abandoned about a minute in due to equipment malfunctions. First night of the tour kinks.

After a short break, Ride came out and destroyed the place. Not all great albums translate to great setlists, but Nowhere is so well sequenced, so full of amazing songs, and played by a band who are arguably better now than they were in the ’90s, it all added up to an incredible show. They played the US edition of the album, which adds “Taste,” “Here and Now” and “Nowhere” from the Fall EP to the UK album’s original eight songs. There were no lows in Ride’s set, from opener “Seagull” through “Kaleidoscope,” “In A Different Place,” “Dreams Burn Down,” “Polar Bear,” and of course “Vapour Trail” which brought the house down. The biggest highlight for me was Andy Bell’s “Paralysed,” which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them play before, and the heavy “Dreams Burn Down,” which they had to restart — more first night kinks. After a short break, they came back for “Lannoy Point” from 2017’s The Weather Diaries, which sounded fantastic, and they finished with whopper rendition of “Leave Them All Behind.” The sound was fantastic (and appropriately loud), they played great, and Andy Bell’s sweater game remains on-point. What a show.

The groups are sticking around NYC to play Brooklyn Steel tonight, this time with Ride on first at 8 PM and The Charlatans on at 9:45. Tickets are still available. All tour dates are in the tour poster below.

photo by Ellen Qbertplaya

The Charlatans & Ride at Webster Hall

photo by Ellen Qbertplaya

The Charlatans & Ride at Webster Hall