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Riverside Church, New York October 25, 2001 By C. Bottomley Rock 'n' roll may come from a place south of heaven, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sometimes crane its neck towards paradise. Jason Pierce has a history of tilting toward transcendence. With both Spaceman 3 and Spiritualized, he's boldly suggested that, as far as rock's development is concerned, Jesus is still bigger than the Beatles. It's just that to get to that realization, a lot of drugs are necessary. Spiritualized's latest album Let It Come Down suggests you need a lot of musicians, too. Pierce's themes have remained the same over the years: the white light white heat running through his mind just can't seem to burn away heartache. But while previously his music has been a blissful amalgam of Velvet Underground's "Heroin" and Krautrock's repetitious grooves, Come Down employs an orchestra and gospel choir for the ultimate in power pop. It's Tin Pan Pandemonium. When Carnegie Hall turned out to be unavailable, Pierce decided to use Harlem's Riverside Church as his venue d'jour (his last NYC gig was at the World Trade Center - gulp), and the saints, gargoyles and air heavy with incense made it an impressive realm for the band's soul searching. On Come Down's closing track, Pierce asks "Lord can you hear me?" The darkened vault was a perfect context to provide some sort of answer. But if Christ had any advice, it would have been to turn the racket down. Century-old churches might be feasts for the eye, but their acoustics can be murder. The sound dilemma was evident as soon as a mournful trumpet finished blowing taps, and the 13-piece band, complete with full brass section, struck into show opener "Cop Shoot Cop" (from 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space). With muffled vocals and "free jazz" passages of tuneless raging, Spiritualized sounded like they were playing in a neighboring building. Standing to the side of the stage, Pierce did his thing, sublimely unaware that tunes he's been known to spend months finessing in the studio were being sucked right into the void. Come Down's kitchen sink orchestrations became shower stall serenades, and as pop songs like "On Fire" become unrecognizable, it was evident that Spiritualized wasn't immune to sonic sludge - Houston, we have a problem. Sound matters may have been out of his control, but there were other problems. Like: aside from a dip into Spaceman 3's "Take Me to the Other Side," Pierce's set list was startlingly unadventurous. "No God Only Religion" and "Come Together" could have been red-headed stepchildren next to the golden incarnations found on the excellent live album Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997. Although most of those fans nodding out in the pews knew songs like "Shine a Light" from the group's 1992 debut Lazer Guided Melodies, that record's simpler arrangements fared better in the environment, and a closing take on "Lord Can You Hear Me?" was true deliverance from the slaughter that had gone before. Who knows? Maybe Pierce found a momentary solace in the maelstrom. But ultimately, the price was his music's soul. And without that, the mightiest edifices in the world might as well be erected on sand. Read a review of Spiritualized's latest album Let It Come Down. |
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