By Anna Dodd, Third Year English
In our overstimulating modern world dominated by 24/7 news cycles and constant access to the digital world on our phones, Spiritualized invites listeners to escape into a dreamlike world of sonic rainbows and contemplative meditation.
The night was the last in a line-up of seven shows to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pure Phase, a record that blends shoegaze, neo-psych, and space rock to produce the distinctive and unique sound they are renowned for.
To honour this milestone, frontman Jason Pierce and Spiritualized’s current troupe of musicians have set out to play this album in its entirety for the very first time.
Due to a slip up in timings, the band had already taken to the stage as we entered the stalls, immediately immersing us into this ethereal world. The choice to have seats across the entire venue instead of the usual pit/standing format was a nice touch, it established a far more relaxing atmosphere than I am used to at gigs and allowed for a real focus on the music.
As their sophomore album, Pure Phase has been rather overshadowed by the cultural reception of their other records; I myself went in with very little familiarity of these tracks in particular, but was pleasantly surprised by the experimental, at times almost bizarre, work of art that I was met with.
From the ambient tranquillity of ‘Take Good Care of It’ to the glitzy and exhilarating ‘Lay Back in the Sun’, the setlist flowed seamlessly, taking us through spiritual states of melancholic yearning to full-frontal euphoric exuberance.
This was mostly set against a projection of the moon, looming behind the band and shifting through the lunar phases, a fitting aesthetic embellishment to spacey instrumentals and existential lyricism such as ‘Time goes slowly by / When I know that it can fly / Spread your wings / You can do anything, everything, anything’ in ‘Spread Your Wings.’
Pierce has stated how important it was that the album was played completely live and not tracked, as he has explained: 'there’s no point saying we’re going to play the record in its entirety if we play to tapes or we’re using backing tracks.'
This is an impressive achievement that cannot be overstated, these songs are melodically layered and instrumentally dense, requiring coordination between the string and horn sections, backing singers, bassist, drummer, keyboard and three guitarists, including Pierce on vocals.
This no doubt took a lot of patience, time and skill to pull off, and the crowd seemed to understand this earnestly. I can’t remember the last time I went to a concert where I wasn’t surrounded by smartphones, a sea of people desperate to capture the winning shot for their Instagram story (which I too am guilty of.)
In fact, over the course of the 90-minute setlist, I only saw a handful of phones pop up out of the darkness to take a quick photo; it truly seemed as though the entire room was wholly present in the moment, willing to be taken on a transcendental symphonic journey.
This was enhanced by the fact that Pierce didn’t once address the audience, as this interaction would have broken the spell and made for a different kind of show.
Admittedly by the encore I did begin to get restless, the instrumental based nature of the music required a certain level of patience and willingness to sit back and be still.
For the final song of the night, the group stepped away from Pure Phase to deliver ‘Cop Shoot Cop...’ from Spiritualized’s third album, a 17-minute haunting letter to heroin that served as an epic finale, capturing their sound at its most maximalist.
The unconventional nature of the concert reminded me how powerful music can be in its purest form, all in all making Spiritualized’s evening in Bristol one that was sublime, surreal and, as their name suggests, spiritual.
Featured Image: Anna DoddHave you relistened to Pure Phase this year yet?
