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There is a moment part way through Spiritualized’s performance of the freak country track “Best Thing You Never Had (The D Song)” – taken from their ninth and latest studio album Everything Is Beautiful released in April this year – when a man wanders arms outstretched on to the stage as if surrendering himself to the intense Hawkwind like tumult of sound.
As if entranced he isn’t given much time to linger and absorb himself into the surge, with security on both wings swiftly despatching him out of the hall. What passes as a rather surreal moment, more akin to festival hippiedom than the sophistication of the Viennese styled Birmingham Symphony Hall, also serves as a reminder of the cultish appeal of the band, with singer songwriter and de facto leader Jason Pearce aka J Spaceman venerated as a messianic figure responsible for sound tracking many peoples’ lives and journeys down splintered paths through bliss, burnout and redemption.
From the swampy blues of “Hey Jane” from 2012’s ‘Sweet Heart Sweet Light’ which starts the set and immediately burns an impression with a barrage of strobes, through to the sunset of “Sail On Through” the closing track of 2018’s ‘And Nothing Hurt’ the nine members of the band, including three female backing vocalists, create a rich depth of styles and sounds that revel in the acoustics of the vast hall.
The narcotic ‘Amazing Grace’ track “She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)” bursts out laced with shrieking psychedelic wah-wah that ties together both celebration and turmoil. “Come Together” the standout from 1997’s ‘Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space’ engulfs in a swirl of euphoria. “Shine A Light” from their 1992 debut album ‘Lazer Guided Melodies’ floats by on a wave of 70’s wide-eyed liberation and the harmonica led bare bones breakdown in the bluesy “The Morning After” another track from ‘And Nothing Hurt’ has a Doors sense of drama and brooding expectation.
Pearce sits with guitar right of stage throughout and he occasionally raises his hand in recognition during the applause, but there is very little punctuation between songs, which are segued together or rise from hymnal chords in a persistence that spans pain, heartbreak, love and salvation.