It's not through studio releases but through live performances that many people have become Riverside fans.

If you haven't seen a concert we've played, we simply haven't met yet :)

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We live in times of big live productions, stunning light effects, bigger and bigger LED walls and multimedia presentations. Tracks are meticulously programmed, which often leaves no room for improvisation and turns them into background music illustrating what happens on the screen. Hopefully, the latter will never happen to us.

Obviously, we care about the visuals during our concerts, but... it's not the most important element to us.

The most important element is YOU.

And us :)

We want to feel good on stage. We want to have fun, which is why we often allow changes, improvisations, modified versions of tracks. And just like our music is mostly about melodies, our concerts are mostly about interaction. The contact between each of us on stage and between the band and the audience.

If you're thinking of going to our concert and you'd like it to be an experience of the "close-your-eyes, sip-wine-on-the-couch and get-peacefully-immersed-in-the-music" kind, you've got the wrong band :)

Riverside concerts are charged with rock energy. The sound is more powerful than on studio releases. (Looks like we've always been metalheads at heart ;) ) Luckily, there's also room for reflection, for what gives us more than just physical pleasure. At some point, you get this special something that makes both us and everyone who comes to see us, experience a kind of "catharsis", something that fills us all with energy lasting for many days after the concert.

We'd been looking for this sort of balance for many years, more or less successfully. Until we hit a different dimension with our "Wasteland Tour". From the first concerts in the autumn of 2018, we've been trying to understand what makes it different. A change of the setlist? More people at our shows? New venues? No, that's not all. Each of us feels that everything's different now, that it's all more... substantial, more on point and, most of all, incredibly good ;)

And now we’d like to bring you some inner balance with our live shows, we’d like them to be a kind of ritual allowing you to connect with us and achieve mental equilibrium. Because, frankly, the studio releases are there to fill the gaps and help you survive between tours ;)

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We'd like to thank everyone who has already come to see us live during "Wasteland Tour". We'd like to thank you for your loyalty, love, support and trust.

The American and Canadian concerts? WOW. That was one of our biggest adventures and journeys through all the possible states of mind ;) We've already said that, but we will say it again: you were truly amazing. And we promise again to go back to the other side of the pond as soon as possible.

Warmest regards and see you soon at more shows!

Truly yours,
Riverside

photo by Kaley Nelson