Monday, November 19th, 2007

Going Down Slow

I figure there are three types of Spiritualized fans out there in the world these days. The faithful, whose zeal for the works of J Spaceman haven’t wavered after all these years. The agnostics (like myself) who would certainly call themselves fans but would have to agree that he’s now some ten years past his best work though are not prepared to write him off yet. And the apostates who, all things being equal, would probably rather listen to Spacemen 3 and angrily dismiss everything Jason Pierce has done post-Ladies & Gentleman, We Are Floating In Space. And, I suppose, you could put everyone else in the world under the category of atheist though they’re not really relevant to this discussion.

Spiritualized has been quiet since 2003’s disappointing (I think all categories of fans can agree on this) Amazing Grace, save a couple of career-spanning compilations. Work had been ongoing on a new record as far back as 2005 but when Jason Pierce nearly died that July, that threw a bit of a spanner in the works. Pierce recovered, thankfully, but the album was delayed – a 2007 release has now become a 2008 release – and until it comes out we can only speculate what sort of effect his illness had on the writing. After all, at least musically and lyrically Pierce has always nursed a deep religious streak and almost being taken to the other side? Well that’s got to leave a mark. But if anyone needed a hint as to where his headspace was at, they needed look any further than his Acoustic Mainlines tour, started in the UK last year and wrapping up a short North American run with the penultimate show in Toronto on Saturday night (it finishes in Boston tonight).

For many/most bands, a tour billed as “accompanied by strings and gospel singers” would be indisputable, physical evidence that they had gone over the top in pretentiousness with casino gigs just around the corner. This would be the apostate point of view. But for Spiritualized, it makes sense. Pierce’s entire career has arguably been dedicated to fusing rock, blues and gospel styles together and so to focus on rearranging his catalog for this sort of show seemed like a logical step. Spiritualized compositions typically come in two flavours – stripped down, electrified blues-rockers and grandiosely orchestrated, well, spirituals. Neither of these really translate to the “unplugged” format and so while the strings and gospel singers worked really well, it was actually the acoustic portion of the arrangements that proved to be the weak spot.

The stage was arranged with Pierce seated with an acoustic guitar, facing an electric pianist and surrounded by a four-piece string section and three-piece gospel choir. Pierce’s voice and guitar were turned way up in the mix and on occasion made the rest of the band sound incidental and gave the songs in almost a folk-like delivery. Whether this was deliberate or circumstantial is hard to say but the overall vibe of the show was extremely chilled out, serene and almost zen-like in its placidity. Any sense of dynamics were muted, particularly without the percussion, horns and electric guitar that typically create the hypnotic energy and punctuation in Spiritualized songs, and instead Pierce was content to just let it flow.

This was the pace for most of the set – beautiful, slow and hazy renditions of Spiritualized songs new and old, Spacemen 3 selections and a Daniel Johnston cover – until “Anything More” from Let It Come Down segued into the title track from their magnum opus, Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. With hit utterance of “All I want in life’s a little bit of love to take the pain away”, the crowd came alive, the gospel choir came alive and though Pierce remained utterly stoic on the exterior, maybe he dug in just a little harder. This was followed up by “Broken Heart” and probably the most gut-wrenching harmonica solo I’ve ever heard before finally easing up a bit for “I Think I’m In Love”. Through most of the show I had been thinking that Pierce had forgotten or abandoned the drama, the crescendos but no, he was just saving it all for the end and in doing so, elevated the show from simply pretty to deeply, devastatingly beautiful.

The disciples would have gone home on Saturday night their faith renewed in the Spaceman, the apostates (also known as the hecklers) perhaps with more evidence that Pierce has lost whatever fire fueled his earlier works and was happily headed down the road to easy listening (and probably left early) and the agnostic, well I’m still going to wait to hear the new album before passing judgment on Spiritualized’s long-term artistic prospects. But of course I’d say that.

Support on the tour came from Irish one-man band Simple Kid who shaggy, Badly Drawn folk was mildly endearing but mostly forgettable. It’s hard to think that someone who sings a duet with a video projection of Kermit The Frog is really striving to be taken seriously so I didn’t bother.

The Toronto Star also offers up a review of the show.

Photos: Spiritualized, Simple Kid @ The Phoenix – November 17, 2007
MP3: Simple Kid – “Lil King Kong”
Video: Spiritualized – “Stop Your Crying” (YouTube)
Video: Simple Kid – “Serotonin” (YouTube)
MySpace: Spiritualized
MySpace: Simple Kid

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James McNew explains the joy of a Yo La Tengo Hannakuk to Gothamist. Bradley’s Almanac has recordings of their recent freewheeling stop in Boston.