THE RITUALISTS AT BOWERY ELECTRIC IN NEW YORK CITY

On October 23rd I went to check out The Ritualists playing a show at a small club in New York City to celebrate their new single, “Monsters” and the upcoming record. There were several openers but then it was time for the hometown New York band to take the stage. The band is described as an 80’s alt-rock glam band, which was very apparent in their live show and costuming. The band is made up of vocalist Christian Dryden, guitarist David Andreana, keyboardist Jeffrey Andrew, bassist Ignacio Lecumberri, and drummer Eric Kuby. 

Dryden made sure you knew they were there to take over the room as soon as they got on stage. He had glitter in his hand to blow on the front row between songs to start with a bang and make sure you were always paying attention. Once the band got rolling in their set, there were minor stops for talking but the crowd didn’t seem to mind as they were jamming and enjoying the songs. Christian did make sure to remind people that it was his birthday so things were going to go the way he wanted. 

The new songs both released and unreleased such as “Queen of Dolls”, “Everybody’s on the Radio”, and “Of Anonymity” were included on the set and sounded great. The last track had a very ethereal feel to open the song and a great guitar solo at the end. They made sure to play both singles, “Monsters” and “Baroque & Bleeding” and they both sounded great. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun. All of the new tracks displayed Christian’s full vocal range which proved to be pretty vast. 

One song that stood out to me was “Too Pure to Cure”, which was played about mid-set. To introduce it Dryden said, “This is a song I wrote about myself.” The reiterating chorus of, “I’m an open door, am I too pure to cure” showed to me how he wears his heart on his sleeve and isn’t afraid to tell it how it is. 

The set ended with a David Bowie cover weaved into The Ritualist song “I’m with the Painted People” and it worked so well. It was in that moment that that's who the band reminded me of the most. The energy of David Bowie resonated through that room and the whole crowd was feeling it. The band did make sure to thank the crowd more than a few times for being there, and participating and enjoying the show. 

I very highly recommend picking up the album Baroque & Bleeding when it comes out on December 3rd and catching the band next time they play a show.