Over the years, I’ve slowly and steadily chipped away at a long mental to-do list made up of concerts by bands I grew up in Alaska loving, but never had a chance to see live. The Pixies were probably the biggest catch on that last, and their now-endless reunion tour gave me ample opportunity to see them in 2004 and 2005. Next on the list was undoubtedly Ride, those UK shoegaze pioneers whose brief but brilliant output had me hooked when I was first introduced to them in high school, and whose name gave George and me, in our shared fandom, half of the title of our college radio show.

I never thought I’d see the day when they would get back together, but even if you told me that would happen, what were the chances that they’d reform, go on tour, and do it not on the back of some new, likely misguided attempt at capturing their old fame, but instead just play all of their old hits, the ones we loved from 1992?

When I heard about the tour and saw they’d be playing at the Paradise (the the PARADISE?) in October, I snapped up tickets. In the interim, New Haven gained a live music venue in a surprisingly excellent overnight renovation, and Ride came on the schedule at the College Street Music Hall. I couldn’t pass up a chance in my own city, so on September 18, there I was, feeling a strange sense of euphoria every time they began a new song. They sounded great, they looked like they were enjoying themselves, and I was pleasantly surprised there were that many other people who’d actually heard of them. Maybe they were all there to see Diiv, who knows.