Ride perform tonight at the Crystal Ballroom (1332 W Burnside) with Cat Hoch. More details here.
When it comes to band reunions, let’s face it: Certain bands—the Smiths, Bikini Kill, Hüsker Dü—are never, ever getting back together. No matter how cordial relations might be (or might not be), the people involved in those groups have zero interest in rehashing the past, no matter how potentially lucrative it could be.
Beyond that small group of holdouts, though, it seems all bets are off. There’s surprising news of one band or another reconciling nearly every week, fueled by an ever-present nostalgia market and the easy earnings of the festival circuit. If the demand is there, why not take advantage of it?
All of this was certainly a factor in the reunion between the four men who make up the pioneering shoegaze band Ride, who formed in Oxford, England, in 1988 and called it quits eight years later. According to singer/guitarist Andy Bell, however, there was some unfinished business for Ride to tend to, after watching other bands heal old wounds then thrive and surpass the work of their decades-old heydays.
“Watching the Stone Roses, who had gone away for 20 years, come back and do gigs that sounded like they were on fire,” Bell says on the phone as Ride prepare to hop a ferry for some gigs in Ireland, “I felt like they’re smashing it and sounding better than ever, maybe it can be done.”