The Black Ryder @ Ding DongLounge, Melbourne (29/05/2010)

Mon 31st May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Bend left knee. Bend right knee. Encourage neck and torso to twist in accordance with the lateral movement. Nod head up and down slowly between shifts and allow arms to swing loosely by the hips. Congratulations, you just danced the shoegaze dance.

A term coined for bands such as My Bloody Valentine who spent more time staring at their endless array of onstage effects pedals during performance than remembering they were supposed to be playing music, ‘shoegazing’ has emerged from it’s pejorative roots in the 90’s to become a major sub-genre in modern alternative music. The Black Ryder are one of the leading proponents of the layered, progressive style in Australia and take to the Ding Dong Lounge stage with fellow ‘drone-core’ generals Three Month Sunset and Dreaming Of Ghosts to ‘ignore’ their 300 hundred strong audience into an altered state of bliss (hopefully).

While events, not least the presence of an excessive amount of police officers outside the venue at just the wrong time, conspire to prevent Dreaming Of Ghosts receiving fair attention, Three Month Sunset get a good go as the punters in Ding Dong begin to swamp the floor.

All hunched shoulders and quivering eyelids they meet the shoegazing bench mark by delivering the atmospherics and drama of the Silversun Pickups, if not the melodic sensibilities. Fitting into the scene comfortably with a large and multi-gendered band, they create the kind of swirling prettiness that unfortunately but undeniably won’t ever be as successful as the radio hits with pop hooks. Playing at two speeds – moderate and middling – their dense, layered approach is compelling in a series of peaks which are too far and few between the murkiness in the troughs, which is languid to say the least.

Immediately livening proceedings with opening number To Never Know You, The Black Ryder’s brighter sounds and chord progressions reminiscent of Bends era Radiohead lay out the chasm of class between themselves and the support. While they still never get out of 3rd gear (perhaps approaching ‘moderatto’ at times), there is a tangible breeze created by the ever so slightly faster swaying of wrists amongst the crowd.

It’s not a change in pace, but the variety of elements they incorporate into their thick as night air sound that sets them apart. Intermittently, they drop in country twang ( Sweet Come Down ), thumping percussion ( Gone Without Feeling ) and surging basslines ( Grass ) to cut through the humidity in their live set. Grass is especially impressive, utilising the rumbling engine beneath the bonnet of their swarming vehicle to get hips swinging in a Kasabian-esque manner. It’s one of the few songs that truly benefits from the run out live rather than being played direct from the album.

The failure of the Shoegazing genre has always been the inability of bands to convert their joyously catatonia-inducing jams into viable live hypnotics. The Black Ryder are no exception here in that, while some of their material from debut album Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride is genuinely captivating played live (and especially in the claustrophobic setting of the Ding Dong Lounge), the tones are too wide and the shades to dark to be fully appreciated. Like trying to comprehend The Last Supper when it’s an inch from your nose, The Black Ryder’s music is maybe just too big to fully understand from feet away, no matter how much stationary dancing one does.

In what’s otherwise a good if not great set, the real let down for the Black Ryder is the lack of strong melody needed to hang their shape-shifting ambience on. As if to nail that point home, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Whatever Happened To My Rock And Roll plays out as the band shuffle offstage, perhaps the just-right blend of noise and hook that the Black Ryder are striving for.