RIVERSIDE
“This is really Polish weather,” says Riverside frontman Mariusz Duda, but the rain hammering the capital hasn’t dampened attendance at the Electric Ballroom, which is packed to capacity tonight. “I hope you like the new Riverside, because this is a new chapter for us,” says Duda. It’s heartening to find the band on such sterling form, given the sudden passing of guitarist Piotr Grudzi´nski two years ago.
The set draws deeply from their latest album, Wasteland, completely skips 2016’s Eye Of The Soundscape’s brief detour into electronica and ambient music, and dips selectively into the vaults. They open with Acid Rain and Vale Of Tears and it’s a pleasure to find a band playing at a volume that doesn’t leave the audience with their brains leaking out of their ears. Reality Dream, from 2004’s Out Of Myself, is all odd measures, switching between sevens and nines, but still has a groove that you can nod your head to. Lament is a fine example of using pauses to add drama to a song, while the riff of Second Life Syndrome brings to mind vintage Yes with drummer Piotr Kozieradzki dusting off his snare drum rudiments.
Keyboardist Michał Łapaj really brings the classic prog vibes to Left Out, with his gorgeous organ playing and a dash of Theremin. The track provides a midway high point, building into a swaggering instrumental section where Łapaj and new guitarist Maciej Meller get to throw out some firepower. Duda switches from bass to acoustic guitar for Guardian
Angel, providing a moment to cool off after the intensity of Left Out, before they make their sole excursion into 2015’s
Love, Fear And The Time Machine for Lost (Why Should I Be Frightened By A Hat?). Another demonstration of Duda’s skill as a composer, Lost… starts softly and holds at that low base dynamic for a long time, before being released to blossom into full colour.
The Struggle For Survival is a standout instrumental packed with more shifts in tone and mood than some bands manage throughout entire albums, while Kozieradzki and Duda lock together on the syncopated accents as Meller cuts loose with a vigorous guitar solo.
The main set concludes with Wasteland, then in the encore Duda gives an impressive rendition of The Night Before accompanied only by Łapaj, and his speech about the importance of the unifying power of music in a time when Poland and UK are both gripped by nationalism receives loud applause.
They conclude with O2 Panic Room and the mellow River Down Below, sweeping aside any doubts that Riverside’s future might be in jeopardy without their founding guitarist. Rain be damned, this is a performance of passion and vigour.