Have You Ever Been Spiritualized? Now, I Have.

Jason Pierce and Spiritualized did the honors at The Gothic Theatre

Have you ever been Spiritualized? I never knew I needed to be. But now I have, and I’m recommending it.

It’s not often you get to spend a few hours in a packed-to-the-rafters Gothic Theatre and hear every note, every tick, every word of every song. This was one of those nights. As Spiritualized filled out that night’s set, most of us were swaying, humming, throbbing – and some of us inexplicably crying – in the midst of an audience rapt to near silence.

Much like Jason Pierce’s latest Spiritualized production, 2018’s And Nothing Hurt, the audience at the Gothic Theatre seemed to be pieced together from years of sampling different, perfect sounds – or at least they did at first. Leather jackets on some had seen what vestiges of the punk explosion remained in the ‘90s as Pierce formed Spiritualized, and looked their part on people who’d seen the same.

Others in the packed theater looked hastily plucked out of their latest activities – at home, at work, at dinner – all still in the midst of what they’d done seconds before being summoned out into the night.  

These die hard fans had come to stand in the dark and get Spiritualized themselves

All of these die hard fans had come to stand in the dark and listen to what would turn out to be a perfectly choreographed symphony of sound and light courtesy of Pierce and a stage full of set musicians. The performance grew into a beautiful world that unraveled, building and growing over more than two hours’ time. It became a space filled with calm, disentangled serenity and overwhelming emotion.

The audience members also unraveled as the show went on, removing layer after layer of any sort of psychic armor they’d worn upon entering, or losing it altogether in the face of the music. By the time the band left to break before an encore, the place felt abuzz with an exhausted satisfaction, and a need to breathe – for just a second between hoots, whistles, and hollers to entice the band’s return.

There was no opening band. There was no fanfare at all, really, as Pierce and company sauntered onstage in the dark, the former taking a seat at stage left in front of music stands lit up to reveal lyrics and notes. He never removed his sunglasses, darkened headlights beneath a mop of thinning hair that told the story of a veritable postpunk hero and an iconoclast – even in the midst of that incongruous bunch.

In the midst of such a wealth of feeling, it seems almost a distraction to point out that the band performed the latest record in its entirety. The sections made up just nine songs in the midst of such a far-reaching history. But what a section.

Before And Nothing Hurt was performed, the renditions of “Stay With Me” and “Broken Heart” – in themselves devastating enough already – brought catharsis to the swooning audience.

Spiritualized created and sustained a Leonard Cohen feeling.

In the album’s performance, “I’m Your Man,” “On the Sunshine,” and “Sail on Through” kept us wrapped in sonic bliss.

The band created and sustained a Leonard Cohen feeling with many of the songs, delivered in a church- like atmosphere. Wavering between distorted chords and soft licks, they were mixing a quietly desperate ambience with a barely noticeable pop.

Pierce sang softly – but with knowing depth and power – about rejection, loneliness, heartbreak. Spiritualized turned the Gothic into a church, and we were all witness to a revival. This was one that took place in a church that was floating in space, where everything was ok, all smoothed out, and relaxed. A place where nothing hurt.

The band was led into the stratosphere by three backup vocalists, all with gorgeous voices pitched perfectly. They were so well mixed and ethereal, singing in harmonies I imagined I might hear in deep space, between planets, floating calmly on my own. At one point, they started to mimic guitar licks in harmony – outlandish, and a perfect dream.

All the while, between acidic geometrical patterns, the light techs displayed song titles on the screen in Morse code.

This was what it felt like to get spiritualized. Thanks, J Spaceman.