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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) billetdoux | |
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Spiritualized Acoustic Mainlines, Boston, MA, November 19, MFA. I've been trying to see this tour for something like nine months, and I missed the New York show that I had tickets to, so lucky for me at the last minute they added a Boston gig at the MFA. Dear god, did it deliver, Started with a string of new songs - both as yet unreleased and from the last couple albums. Wasn't sure how things were going to pan out, but it still sounded awesome. And then it happened. "Walking with Jesus" into "Feel so Sad" into "Shine a LIght" into "Wash Away All of My Tears." Fuckin a medly of "Anything More" and "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" - the song that made me first want to get into advertising when I was drugged out and unemployed, sitting on a couch in allston when I first saw it in a VW commercial. And not only that, he played the original version, which ends with the "I Can't Help Falling In Love" chorus. He played "I think I'm In Love." With a string quartet and choir. How is that even possible? He played "Broken Heart." He played "Stop your Cryin." He played some crap off of Amazing Grace that still sounded awesome - like "Lord Let it Rain on Me" and "Hold On." He freakin' played "Amen." He played "Feel So Sad." I have seen Spiritualized twenty times - that is not an exaggeration - and I have never seen him play it. Not even on the "Laser Guided Melodies" tour. He ended with an encore of "Lord Can You Hear Me" and "Oh Happy Day." Bradley summed it up best: "I feel bad for people not at this show, even the people that have never heard of Spiritualized." This was my favorite band for ten years of my life. And though I'm kind of over that phase, hearing these songs brought back every ounce of confusion, guilt, hope, happiness, love and desperation that marks my youth. The sound of confusion indeed.
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From: harryh |
Date: November 20th, 2007 03:25 pm (UTC) |
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| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: November 24th, 2007 02:16 am (UTC) |
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worst show ever
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I'd never heard of spiritualized before this particular show, aside from bits and pieces. Since it was at an art museum(and hence the bands name) I was expecting an enlightening artistic experience. People described his work to me as a cross between The Velvet Underground, La monte YOung, and Steve Reich.
What I subsequently experienced was perhaps the worst concert ever performed in the history of music. This is solely my opinion but if I ever encountered this J. Spaceman fellow I would demand my money back.
I could tell he was fucked up on acid when he came out, stumbling, dark sunglasses, mumbling.
He can't really play guitar for beans. I don't mind simple songs with nothing but two-chords, but this guy used the same strumming pattern for the WHOLE SHOW. Not to mention, after he finished one song he would often break into another using THE SAME TWO CHORDS.
Most of the songs consisted of a few painfully bad lines and then one endless, repeated refrain.
When he said "even freer than DMT" I almost burst out laughing. Clearly this guy hasn't had ENOUGH DMT and by the encore I was shoving my way through crying hipsters to the back exit.
People are entitled to their own opinions but when a guy plays two songs in a row with the same chords and similar lyrics one should know they they have been swindled.
Strange, as I like J. Spaceman's music with Han Bennik and Evan Parker.
Anybody else loathe this experience?
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From: billetdoux |
Date: November 24th, 2007 08:38 am (UTC) |
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Re: worst show ever
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I can understand where you're coming from. There were moments in the show where I tried to imagine things as a youngin' who had never heard or seen this man or this band before, and it struck me that this would be a bit lame if I had no frame of reference.
What you witnessed was a show that was part of a 20, 25 year process. Whoever told you that you would see something akin to lamonte young and the velvet underground was not wrong - indeed, Spiritualized are, or were, the direct descendants of that musical vein - La Monte young even recorded with Jason back in 89 or something (I'm too lazy to look it up now). Jason is very good friends with Steve Reich, as well, and they have played shows together. A normal Spiritualized show is a massive, loud, rocking, droning behemoth of a thing. Radically different. This is the first tour he's ever done anything remotely like this.
You witnessed a show where Jason decided to stop being a loud, psychadelic rock band, and do some shows with a choir and orchestra. You also witnessed a show where he had hired and played with that orchestra exactly six days earlier, and they had one rehearsal before the tour - most of those droney guitar intros were tempo/tuning checks so the quartet and choir could find a key and tempo.
When Jason was 17 (he is now 42), he was on the cover of NME as perhaps the greatest guitar player in England since Clapton. Those reviews were probably hyperbole, but I assure you, he wasn't playing 2 chords because he couldn't play anything else. I have seen many, many guitar players, and I have seen that man SHRED when feels so inclined. It might be misguided, but he is doing this, now, because he is pursuing something, not because he can't play.
If you dig up those old spacemen 3 records, their genius lied in their 2 chord simplicity, married with some immediately relatable lyrics and some ridiculously good guitar solos that were radically out of place in songs of such directness ad simplicity.
I will admit that Spiritualized (and Spacemen 3 before them) were devotees of the 2 chord pop song. I've always thought bridges and third chords were a waste of time, though even I admit that listening to them all back to back, years later, definitely made the structures sound a bit simplistic, though I find that part of their genius. Fuck bridges! fuck extra lyrics! Truth!
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