Concert Tue Sep 09 2008

Spiritualized Mixes Old and New; Shines a Light at Metro

By Marla Seidell

Although it was a stormy Monday evening that for every reason should have been as banal as any other waterlogged expanse of American humdrum, Spiritualized swooped down to lift the roof off emotional stagnation, breathing life and soul into vast internal choirs.

Arrived around half past 8 at Metro. Grand Old Party, who hails from San Diego, kicking out bluesy rock on stage. Singer/drummer Kristin Gundred belts out songs about love and its many vices with full gospel fortitude. Accompanied by bassist Michael Krechnyak and guitarist John Paul Labno, the trio held the audience captive with songs like "Nasty Habits." Note: at this point I took a look around the crowd to find, frighteningly (but in a good way), a sea of doppelgangers all around — quasi-hipster intellectual types bespectacled and thoughtfully listening to the music. More than a handful of guys sporting hooded sweatshirts, and women of all shapes wearing all kinds of (read: in mode) glasses.

Gundred, a woman with the Herculean vocal prowess of Beth Ditto and the angst of PJ Harvey, a welcome and necessary antidote to recent developments (read: a dangerous anti-feminist V.P. candidate) in actual Grand Old Party. The band's piercing garage band rock fueled by unfettered female disquietude a soothing kind of electrical relief. And doing a solid job of warming up the audience for gospel/space rock of Spiritualized.

Spiritualized hits on stage around 9:20pm. Jason Piece, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, and of course sunglasses stands parallel to the audience, still it's the closest I've ever come. I saw them at Pitchfork this summer but this performance starkly contrasts. In a smaller venue Pierce connects more intimately with the audience — he's less of a distant rock star performing on a far away planet before thousands and more of a man pouring out profuse intensity and soaring emotion. And although this time he still didn't utter any words outside his songs, he clapped along with everyone at the beginning and end, and appeared more interconnected with the audience's response.

Two gospel singers, also in white, behind Pierce, with Kevin Bales on drums, Richard Warren on bass, Tony "Doggen" Foster on guitar, and Tim Lewis on keyboards. The first song, "Amazing Grace," fills the room with humble, yet soul-baring transcendence. "Shine a Light," from the group's 1992 progressive debut album, Lazer Guided Melodies, follows, a song that aptly sums up the performance: plaintive yet profoundly moving. Unlike at Pitchfork, at which mostly saw songs from the band's recent album, Songs in A&E, predominated, last night saw a good number of the old but good ones, like "Ladies and Gentleman, We Are Floating in Space," and "Come Together," both from the 1997 acclaimed album of the former song title. And songs like "Soul on Fire," and "Death Take Your Fiddle," both from Songs, had the audience rocking out, building into the guitar frenzy (sans gospel singers), because, let's face it: once a spaceman, always one. By the end the audience begging for more, enraptured. Like music in a gospel church, Spiritualized leaves you transformed and transfixed.

The encore sees the gospel singers return and like "Amazing Grace," which kicked off the show, another spiritual-sounding hymn, "Lord Can You Hear Me When I Call," — from the 2001 album, Let it Come Down, bathes the audience in a particular kind of affectionate light.

And afterward, out on the street, the storm had lifted.