Despite the disappointment of the year, the Ravonettes pulling out of supporting them at the last minute, Spiritualized put on a good show to the few people that turned up on this weekday evening. Recent album Amazing Grace may have been acclaimed as a back to basics LP, but the seven piece band still managed to find room for three guitarists. They were minus the lush orchestration characterising space rock classic albums like "Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space" and "Let it Come Down", but still created a vast soundscape that drew the audience in - if music was paintings, Spiritualized's music would be the type of painting that looks like you could walk around in it. The band's gospel influence was clear; they seemed to revere every note and be really engrossed in the music - so engrossed, in fact, that they neglected to say anything to the audience throughout the entire gig. Indeed, main genius and front man Jason 'Spaceman' Pearce kept a low profile, sitting to one side of the stage, eyes mostly closed. 

One song led seamlessly into another, and many of the obvious hits were missing, though nineties hit 'Come Together' was the song most enthusiastically received, towards the end. This was one of the few moments when I felt that the song itself counted as important by being catchy - it seemed at all other times that Spiritualized were striving purely for atmosphere and ambience through imaginative exploration of their instruments. Despite some unfortunate heckling, Spiritualized make a lot more sense live then on record and I particularly enjoyed the slower songs more than the all out rockers like 'Electricity.' Contemplative tracks such as 'Broken Heart' were like soothing lullabies - although in the relaxing, comforting sense rather than in the dull or tedious way.

This was a gig of extremes. The set contained song after song of blissful, slide guitar led ballads and moments when you had to strain to hear as it appeared the band were using their entire soul to capture and translate the sensation of silence to sound. Equally, minutes of pure screeching, sliding, abrasive guitar noise were high on the Velvet Underground scale of musical screeching. It was all underpinned by the gentle keyboard hum. This explosiveness was heightened by a plethora of strobe light effects, often for several minutes at a time with no respite. The music was matched in its intensity only by the beauty of some of the trio slide guitar tracks.

It could be said Spiritualized are stoner music, and I can see why its rumoured that both the band and their fans are big on drugs: you'd be missing out if you just listened to Spiritualized casually as Spiritualized are the type of band to totally immerse yourself in.

Picture from www.spiritualized.com

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