Ride and Ulrika Spacek at Leeds Beckett Students’ Union (10/11/17)
Ulrika Spacek
Prior to the gig, I had not heard of this band before, but I am so glad I now know about them.
Ulrika Spacek were very guitar and drum orientated and all the songs were propped up superbly by solid bass lines.
A song that stuck out for me was called ‘Full of Men’. The song was predominantly mellow, yet had a strong drum pattern and extremely catchy guitar phrases.
Some of their guitar phrases were very simple, but sounded so interesting and effective. The frontman, Rhys Williams, had a soft sounding voice, which complimented the guitars very well.
Ulrika Spacek formed in 2014 and have released two albums so far: ‘The Album Paranoia’ and ‘Modern English Decoration’. I would recommend Ulrika Spacek if you like Ride or Radiohead.
Ride
WHAT A BAND!
Last night was the first time I had seen them live and I can already say, I will definitely go to see them again in the future.
Ride kicked off the gig with ‘Lannoy Point’, a song from their most recent album, ‘Weather Diaries’. Immediately, they captured everyone’s attention. I could not help bopping my head and dancing as this song is so funky.
After this, they played the explosive ‘Charm Assault’. Personally, I think releasing this as their comeback hit after 21 years was such a good idea. It highlights their talent of being able to compose amazing songs.
If you are worried rock and roll is dead, Ride prove rock and roll is actually very much alive.
Later in the set, Ride took us back to 1990 when they released ‘Dreams Burn Down’, which has such an atmospheric sound. The dreamy verses are split apart by heavy drum phrases. Throughout the song, the voices of Mark Gardener and Andy Bell help create a mellow sound. Their voices merge together perfectly and it was so amazing to see and hear them live.
’Drive Blind’ was one of the most memorable songs from last night. Laurence (Loz) Colbert’s drumming was absolutely outstanding. During the instrumental, he increased the complexity of the drum pattern and even stood up to drum. This added so much energy to the instrumental.
When Ride came back on stage for their encore, they surprised the crowd with four songs. One of those was ‘Leave Them All Behind’, which is definitely one of my favourite Ride songs. Me and my dad were hoping they would sing this. However, we felt slightly doubtful as we could see the set list from the barrier and ‘Leave Them All Behind’ wasn’t on there. This made it even more exciting when we instantly recognised the iconic instrumental that kicks off this tune. The encore really got the crowd going; before this, the crowd were very appreciative but there was no wild mosh pit.
Another one of my favourite tunes by Ride is ‘All I Want’, which was released earlier this year. I love the contrast in pace during this song, as the mellow vocals make the verses seem slower, yet the pace then picks up between the lyrics and so much energy can be heard.
I would describe Ride as a band who are easy to listen to. They musical catalogue includes something for everyone. I highly recommend them if you like Oasis or Radiohead.
This was my first gig review. I originally published it on Alternative Atmosphere in November 2017.
