The Charlatans and RIDE
Webster Hall
January 18th 2024
By Kevin McGann
Last year, RIDE and The Charlatans kicked off a co-headlining tour here in the States that focused on each playing a pivotal album from their now decades long careers. The tour, entitled Between Nowhere, found RIDE playing their debut album Nowhere for its 30th anniversary and The Charlatans playing their sophomore album Between 10th and 11th. They returned to the States in 2024 for another leg of the Between Nowhere tour and played Webster Hall again this past Thursday, January 18th.
First up was RIDE who kicked off the night with Nowhere’s opening track “Seagull”. Right from the start you could feel the energy in that room as Andy Bell and Mark Gardener’s guitars swirled around Loz Colbert’s propulsive drumbeats and Steve Queralt’s bass grooves. And it only got more intense from there as they made their way through “Kaleidoscope”, “In A Different Place”, and “Polar Bear”.
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While the Oxford group is known as one of the pioneers of the “shoegaze” sound of the early 90’s, RIDE has always had a harder rock sound to their approach which is even more evident during their lives shows. The set was rounded out nicely, from fan favorites “Vapour Trail” and “Taste” from Nowhere to “Leave Them All Behind”, “Lannoy Point”, and new single “Peace Sign” from their upcoming seventh album, Interplay.
After a short intermission, The Charlatans took to the stage and kicked off their set with Between 10th and 11th’s opening track, “I Don’t Want To See the Sights”. With a sound that is reminiscent of early 90’s alt rock but is also steeped in retro 60’s rock and R&B, their music still sounds fresh today. Lead singer Tim Burgess came out with his smartphone, snapping pics of the crowd as he walked the stage, and was clearly as excited to be there as we were to see them play. There’s such a youthful energy about Burgess, with his bleached blonde shaggy hair and churning-butter stage moves, that you forget it’s been 30+ years since they started out.
The Charlatans set worked their way through 10th and 11th, with the highlights being “Page One”, “Tremolo Song” and especially “Weirdo” which had the room dancing along. From there they played other fan favorites “One to Another”, “Toothache”, and “The Only One I Know”. For “North Country Boy” they were joined by Andy Bell for a raucous jam that had the entire room singing along. With both bands putting out new music it’s great to see this resurgence, both in terms of popularity among newer audiences but also in their own creativity. Hopefully this is not the last time we see these two bands tour together – perhaps a Going Friendly tour to celebrate RIDE’s Going blank Again and The Charlatans’ Some Friendly albums? We can only wish.
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