Jason Pierce’s quasi-psychedelic, neo-gospel space-rock outfit are an odd choice for a festival seemingly populated by nobody over the age of 23. Set adrift from the oddly perfect pairing with Mogwai by the latter’s visa problems, Spiritualized instead have to follow up the entertaining Deer Tick and go head-to-head with headliner Beck. And Pierce doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest. Standing side-on to the crowd, there’s every chance he neither knows nor cares how few people are there.
Recent single “Hey Jane” both started and epitomized a set that rambled from pop hooks with gospel-tinged backing vocals to walls of noise and back again. New album Sweet Heart, Sweet Light dominates the show but there’s time for a song from Pierce’s former band Spacemen 3 (whom The Stranger’s Dave Segal makes a solid case for the importance of http://www.thestranger.com/
Time hasn’t been especially kind to Spiritualized -fifteen years on from that album the hints of redemption in “Stay with Me” are long gone, and these days it’s a rather ravaged-looking Pierce repeatedly howling “don’t go” into a flurry of feedback, but there’s still something life-affirming about the experience. Pierce’s invocations of Jesus and the Devil may always sound like he’s signing about himself but, audience or not, he can still put on a hell of a show.
