The last time Ride graced a Paris stage, they were closing out the 30th anniversary tour of their seminal debut Nowhere. Tonight, at Le Trianon, they’re flipping the page and opening a brand new chapter: launching the tour for Interplay, their freshly released 2024 album. Unsurprisingly, the set leans heavily on the new material, offering a live immersion into their latest sonic explorations. By definition, shoegaze artists don’t put on the most spectacular shows on a visual level, and Ride is no exception. That’s by design—the personalities on stage matter very little. What you’re meant to do is let the music wash over you and feel the sound engulf you. It’s an almost psychedelic experience. In fact, we’ve heard that partaking in a little lysergic consumption helps enjoy the ritual, but of course we wouldn’t know firsthand. But don’t let the lack of pretense and pageantry fool you: Ride are an exciting band to see live. When the band takes flight, their pure kinetic energy and Andy Bell’s guitar heroics are every bit as compelling as a populist arena act.
What often goes unmentioned when talking about Ride is the groove. Beneath the cascading distortion and the melodic sensibilities that once earned them favor with the Britpop crowd lies an unmistakable dance pulse—an echo of the '80s rave-rock scene they grew out of. It's part of what makes their formula so effective: this is music that engages both the mind and the body. Sure, the records are meticulously produced, with all the studio magic dialed in just right, but live, it transforms. The volume hits square in the solar plexus, the rhythm section locks you into a hypnotic sway, and the songs swirl and repeat in your head like sonic mantras.
Ride remain crushingly loud—louder than most bands half their age, and proud of it. The newer songs went down like a charm but of course tunes like "Monaco," "Peace Sign" or "I Just Came To See The Wreck" are every bit as good as the classics everyone came to hear. But for all the muscle in their new material, it was the timeless anthems from three decades past that drew the biggest crowd reactions. "Vapour Trail," "Seagull," "Leave Them All Behind," "Chelsea Girl"—each one elevated the room, sending voices soaring and bodies swaying, as if the years had melted away. For a brief, fleeting moment, we were all younger, thinner, and the future still shimmered with the illusion of promises. Then came the subway ride (pun absolutely intended) home—a quiet, slightly bitter comedown after a 90-minute high that reminded us just how deeply Ride still knows how to move both hearts and eardrums.
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