Ride Announce Australia And New Zealand Tour

UK shoegaze icons Ride have announced they’ll be touring Australia and New Zealand this August, promoting their seventh album Interplay.

The six-show tour will hit most Aussie capital cities – Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – and close out in Auckland. Joining them for all shows will be Mercury Rev.

Ride reformed in 2014 after a famous split in the mid-’90s. Since their return to the industry, they’ve released three albums, and have been together longer in this stint than their pre-split phase.

Beginning in England in 1988, the Nowhere artists were pioneers of the shoegaze genre, mixing indie and rock in an ethereal style. They’ve retained their unique sound over the years, with their latest album proving it.

Ride is also renowned for their on-stage chemistry, as The Music reviewer Andy Hazel said of their 2022 show in Melbourne: “Singer and guitarist Mark Gardener’s floppy fringe may be long gone, and eternal foil Andy Bell may be hiding stage right under a baseball cap that spends most of the night tilted toward the neck of his guitar, but the opening squall of feedback that announces Seagull is like an electric shock that sends us back to 1990.

“Everything sounds bigger and better than everything else. As the band launches into Kaleidoscope, it becomes apparent that there is some kind of dark magic here that goes beyond fidelity. It’s not just the crowd willing the band to be good or the subtle backing tracks augmenting the songs; it is the songs themselves. Even after being drenched in distortion and cranked to eleven, these are delicate immaculately-written tunes. Songs that could have been played on acoustic guitars in English folk clubs in the early 1970s.”

Gardener previously told The Music that Ride’s reunion feels like “a second chance.” He explained: “The lives that we’ve had are a lot to do with Ride. That’s how people are going to remember us: we’re always gonna be those guys who were in that band Ride.”

Pre-sale tickets for Ride’s tour go on sale on May 15, 9am local time. General sale begins May 17, 9am local time. Tickets are expected to be priced from $99-$129 and can be found here.

RIDE

2024 ‘INTERPLAY’ AUSTRALIAN AND NZ TOUR

WITH SPECIAL GUEST MERCURY REV

Thursday 8 August - Hindley Street Music Hall - Adelaide
Friday 9 August - Enmore Theatre - Sydney
Saturday 10 August - Forum - Melbourne
Wednesday 14 August - The Tivoli - Brisbane
Friday 16 August - Metropolis - Perth
Sunday 18 August - Powerstation - Auckland