Why You Don’t Want To Miss Spiritualized At Supersense

Seeing Spiritualized live should be something everyone does at least once in a lifetime. Seeing Spiritualized play a one-off headline slot with the Australian Art Orchestra and vocal group the Consort of Melbourne may be something worth dying for. 

Spiritualized are no strangers to spectacular one-off gigs, notably at the top of the World Trade Centre and on the 114th floor of Toronto's CN Tower. Given this is a band whose lyrics include "there's a hole in my arm where all the money goes," and "sometimes have my breakfast right off a mirror" the press had a field day running “Spiritualized to get high at…” related headlines. Add to that legendary performances at the Nick Cave curated Australian All Tomorrow’s Parties and playing the closing slot of the UK's legendary Glastonbury Festival a number of times, and it’s fair to say that Spiritualized’s live reputation is something close to hallowed.

Whilst historically Spirtualized was once Jason Pierce and whoever he happened to be hiring or firing that month, the band has eased toward stability and has since 2009 consisted of the same six members. Pierce is still the creative nucleus of the band writing and singing every song.

Spiritualized’s Supersense performance won’t be Pierce's first dalliance with vast arrangements. The lead single from 2001's Let it Come Down, Stop Your Crying, was recorded with a 100 piece orchestra. A master of quiet-LOUD combinations, Pierce’s softly sung, almost murmured passages, were bookended by thunderous orchestral crescendos as the song swung from calm confessions to floods of compassion. Whereas other grand collaborations of this nature have come unstuck (I’m looking at you Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony) the bombastic, tidal waves of emotion that Pierce manages to express through his innovative use of space rock and improvisational noise have always lent themselves to glorious excess.

Best known amongst Pierce’s back catalogue is the spectacular odyssey through love, heartbreak and spirituality Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, which pipped OK Computer as NME’s album of the year in 1997. It was an album so meticulously constructed that it took a year to mix. Ladies and Gentlemen… also saw the introduction of gospel influences – which may be yet another dynamite aspect to their upcoming Melbourne performance should be dynamite, as the Consort of Melbourne apply their chops in contrast to Pierce’s vision. 

Pierce again scaled emotional peaks when returning from a five year absence on Songs in A + E, a significant part of which was spent recovering from a life threatening illness, where songs like  Death Take Your Fiddle offering a view from inside the mind of an artist on the edge.

With a wealth of former triumphs to choose from, the overall effect of Spirtualized together with the Australian Art Orchestra and vocal group the Consort of Melbourne ought to be something of a heart exploding, emotional rollercoaster. Picking which songs to perform won’t be easy. All we can expect for certain is something truly majestic. 

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