Gig review: Spiritualized - Glasgow ABC

Jason Pearce’s pursuit of perfect pop transcendence has been an exquisite work in progress for more than twenty years.

The prescription remains the same – an idiosyncratic blend of comedown soul, plaintive gospel, psych rock and harmonic pop – but each fresh missive brings some refinement of the model, and the latest album Sweet Heart Sweet Light features some of his most beautiful and vulnerable songs to date. However, Pearce seemed to have other ideas for this show.

Following the highly acclaimed big band tours of recent years, he has stripped this operation back to garage band essentials (plus soulful backing vocalists), packing an urgent punch on the opening rock’n’roll salvo before the extended jam-out commenced, turning Lord Let It Rain On Me into a tolling gospel doom march. The positioning of the band members, facing away from the crowd and towards each other, only heightened the sense of insularity.

The sadness, so prevalent throughout their catalogue, was rendered rather limply, even drearily, in places. On the other hand, the medicinal references – almost as common in the Spiritualized canon as supplications to a higher power – have taken on a sharper resonance following Pearce’s recent bouts of severe ill-health.

Set closer So Long You Pretty Things grew from intimate, melancholic roots into a devotional powerhouse and the encore delivered true grit, controlled chaos and a stealthy hint of danger – a microcosm of what this gig could have been.

Rating: ***