The Ritualists Release Debut Album, Painted People - i99Radio, Philadelphia's Alternative Rock!

Bayside returned to Philly this past week for a two night stand celebrating their music both old and new. i99Radio was on the scene to capture night one of two. For the first night, Bayside brought songs from their early years, 2004 to 2008. For many of us, it takes us back instantly to the songs of our childhood, middle and high school years, and the audience spanning Gen X to Gen Alpha came ready to rock.

Long Island, NY’s The Sleeping started the night off and brought their unique blend of post-hardcore and raw energy to the stage that really got the audience going. People thrashed around and sang along, and even a toddler hopping up on his dad’s shoulders to get a better view of frontman Doug Robinson, who climbed up to the barrier, putting his microphone up to fans to sing along with them, and eventually even crowdsurfing above their heads at one point. The band has been experiencing a revival since their reunion in 2022 and their fantastic newest album, “I Feel Like I’m Becoming a Ghost”, dropping in 2023.

Bayside then took the stage, kicking off their set with the classic track, “Montauk”, from their second self-titled album. Frontman Anthony Ranieri commented how their idea for the “Errors Tour” came about when they wanted to play 44 songs in each city, instead of just 22. He talked about how the band has so many songs that fans love from all across their career, but not enough time to play them all, so they thought, “why not just play 2 nights in every city?”

The night of classic nostalgia continued on, with the band delivering high-energy versions of much loved tracks from their third album, 2007’s “The Walking Wounded”, like “Duality”, “I and I”, and the ballad “Landing Feet First” (of which started a massive audience singalong). The band also reached far back in their discography, playing tracks from their first years as a band, like “Masterpiece”, “Guardrail” and “Kellum”, off of the first album, 2004’s “Sirens and Condolences.” The audience was audibly excited by this, as these tracks are very rarely played live. The audience cheered loudly and unleashed a constant stream of crowd-surfers to the front of stage as they ripped through these classic tracks. The “newest” songs they played for night 1 were tracks from 2008’s classic album, “Shudder”, like “Boy”, “No One Understands” and “The Ghost of St. Valentine”. Again, many of these tracks haven’t been played since the Shudder Tour in 2008 so hearing these songs was certainly a treat for the audience.

Bayside’s show at Brooklyn Bowl was a testament to how the songs we grew up with are forever engrained in our DNA, the music grows with us and becomes a part of us as we grow older, but we never forget the songs that influenced us almost two decades ago. The 1,000 people in the audience who turned up to sing every word of these songs that are almost 20 years old now proves this to be true and Bayside to be a band close to so many people’s hearts.

Photos by Dave Avidan

The Ritualists just released their debut LP Painted People on August 2 via Out of Line Music. Starting their run in the NYC Underground music community, the group is making their debut with this full-length, 10-track album.

*Painted People* album cover
Photo courtesy of Out of Line Music

The opening track, “Rattles,” has a calm vibe which is an interesting start to the album. Instead of jumping right into things with a hard rock song, they take the time to ease into the album and build to a stand-out chorus that brings the sound up a bit compared to the rest of the song.

The second track and debut single, “Ice Flower,” sounds like something that would be on the soundtrack of the Netflix hit “Stranger Things.” In fact, a lot of the group’s new songs use nostalgic 80s beats. “Ice Flower” specifically seems more like a soulful, David Bowie sound which lead singer Christian Dryden credits as one of their many influences. The music video for the song has people fighting in it, which fits with the song’s sort of angst-y rock tune as well.

“Worthiest One” starts off with an 80s electronic, “Tetris” video-game beat before moving into fuller instrumentals. With this song, and throughout most of the record, Dryden keeps up the soulful vocals. His words almost physically depict a longing for something. For what depends on the listener’s depiction. With this song, it seems to be a longing for the one worthy of his love.

Another track that stands out is “She’s the Sun.” While this also has an 80s vibe to it sound-wise, something about it reminds me of early 90s grunge rock— more specifically, Nirvana. I could also see this song being on the soundtrack of a 90s cult film, such as “Jawbreaker.” It just has that edgy, sinister vibe to it that reflects the movie’s underlying meaning.

“Starry Night” is a bit nostalgic and describes conflicting emotions. The point of view has the person missing their love but, at the same time, they acknowledge that the love wasn’t made easy thanks to their lover. So it’s almost a song of closure, acknowledging the unsaid feelings while moving on from the situation.

As for what inspired the title song “I’m with the Painted People,” Dryden says, “I wrote that one about my experiences on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Growing up and feeling a kinship with these larger than life characters, Bowie, Simon Le Bon, Bryan Ferry and Marc Bolan, was a blessing and a bit of a curse. In the one sense, it was magical and transformative to imagine these people as your sort of musical soul mates. Sadly though, it also seemed to engender feelings of loneliness, as there didn’t appear to be anyone else who shared this vision. And that is how I felt, until I started to frequent the venues and clubs of the Lower East Side.”

There, Dryden was able to find his fellow “painted people”— the ones that could see his creative vision. You feel that desperation and longing to find them in this song as he meaningfully chants, “I’m with the painted people!” And now, every time they perform the song in NYC, he dedicates the song to the people there.

“Over the Lie” is very instrumental as a lot of the songs are. However, this song appears to be lighter in sound and I could see it being in an 80s movie soundtrack such as “The Breakfast Club.” Dryden sings, “But it’s too late to cry, over the lie,” which I could see being played following when the cast realizes they have nothing in common other than being in detention together, and that some of their outside personas may not be who they really are as people. This song could illustrate their emotions during that scene.

The song “Darling” is more of a lovesick song, I would say. Dryden admits that a lot of the songs on this album were inspired by heartbreak. This is evident as Dryden belts out the lyrics almost painfully in this track. This is the go-to song if you personally feel confused about your own love life or feel lost within it. The song seems to depict that perfectly with the lyrics “But where do we go from here? When the future is so unclear. And what would I become without you?”

Many of the songs take on “a grander concept than simply ‘I’m upset because someone hurt me’” in regards to being about love and heartbreak, as Dryden describes. This is evident on songs like “True Dictator” where he seems to be helping someone with love but, at the same time, may not think they’re taking the best route and is acknowledging that.

Some acoustic guitar with back-up instrumentals start the song “Sunset” which makes it different right off the bat. As the song keeps going, we again eventually hit the electronic sound and electric instruments. However, that acoustic at the beginning gives it a calmer vibe, similar to the beginning of the album and tying the conclusion of this album in a neat little bow.

Interested in listening to the album? You can check out Painted People on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Learn more about The Ritualists and find more streaming platforms on their website here.

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