Watching Spiritualized perform live, you can’t help but feel that their music would be best consumed in small doses. The problem is, Jason Pierce just doesn’t seem to do small doses. If he did, he probably wouldn’t be peddling an album of songs inspired by his time spent in A&E (Songs In A&E).
In great big large doses, the band’s shortcomings become magnified. Seldom more than strings of clichés, the sameness and vagueness of Pierce’s lyrics serve to nullify their impact. The frequency with which he uses the word ‘Lord’ alone would test the patience of Saints. ‘Take Good Care Of It’ and ‘Lord Can You Hear Me?’ are typical of the repertoire, plodding ballads with generic gospel choruses. Even Ladies And Gentlemen high-points ‘Come Together’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ feel rather perfunctory, while the feedback jams fail to connect.
Towards the end of the set they perform an old Spacemen 3 track that repeats the couplet “Come and take me for a ride, Take me to the other side”. You wonder how, all these years later, Jason Pierce is still singing about the same old nondescript things and there’s still people left who care. It would be heartening to see some evidence to suggest that he has evolved somewhat as a songwriter, that there’s some artistic spirit behind all the clichéd imagery and pharmaceutical artifice. Pierce constantly seems to be striving for profundity, but the way I see it, tonight’s unconvincing performance succeeds only in being profoundly dull.