LIVE: Razor-sharp Ride travel back to the future

Ride // The Moth Club, Hackney // 23/04/19

“When we first started, we used to play Chelsea Girl twice,” says Ride frontman Mark Gardener, namechecking the band’s infectious, buzzing 1990 debut single, before treating the Moth Club crowd to a second, razor-sharp run-through of their latest release Future Love. 

It’s an appropriate call-back: the bittersweet jangle of the shoegaze pioneer’s new track channels their most tuneful moments, and suggests 2017’s impressive comeback collection Weather Diaries marked a true creative rebirth. Like their early 90s Thames Valley pals Slowdive, Ride appear determined not to tarnish the reputation their genre-defining early work garnered during the 20 years they were apart, and Future Love fits seamlessly into a setlist that takes in their finest moments.

This being a tiny but packed fan club gig, the band are playing to a partisan crowd. Still, it’s difficult not to be genuinely impressed by the raw, metallic edge of songs like Seagull, Charm Assault and Drive Blind, all of which cut even deeper live than on record. Ride never deserved the accusation of being fey home counties fops that was flung at them by the music press during their first flush of success, and in the cramped, glitter-ceilinged setting of the Moth Club the brutality that lies beneath the beauty of their sound is impossible to ignore. It’s ear-crushingly loud.

That’s not to say they don’t let the beauty take centre stage at times. The Oxford four-piece have always done the whole dreamy guitar thing better than most and the more delicate moments of the set, such as the languid Catch You Dreaming and indie classic Vapour Trail, are undeniably mesmerising. 

Casting the same spell at the huge festivals they’re heading to this summer will be a tougher task, but on this evidence Ride are certainly worth their second spin.