Spiritualized @ Sydney Opera House
Spiritualized
Sydney Opera House
December 2, 2012
The Opera House is such an iconic structure (especially to an outsider like me) that it is always kind of special to see a favourite band there (even if the interior of the building is, well, kind of ordinary). So I was pretty excited as I looked out over the harbour waiting to take my seat (Row 2!) for Spiritualized.
Once inside, Spiritualized wasted little time. With no support act, the band were on stage at 8:05 with a brand new song called Here It Comes. A simple, focused song, Here It Comes blended right into Hey Jane from this year’s excellent Sweet Heart, Sweet Light. Back in May when I saw the band early in the tour I remember Hey Jane being a lot more fierce but I enjoyed it nonetheless. In fact, to me, most of the show seemed rather restrained by Spiritualized standards.
Other than Here It Comes, the band also played two other brand new songs. ‘A’ Song (obviously a working title) is a lengthy, bluesy song that I’d love to see the band do more of these days. Perfect Miracle, the other new one, not so much.
The final portion of the show did make up for a rather tame first half. Take Your Time, complete with a manufactured volume boost in the climax, was spectacular as was Electric Mainline. The encore featured Jason reaching back to the Spacemen 3 days with versions of Come Down Easy and Walking With Jesus. Come Down Easy had never been played by Spiritualized prior to this tour so it was surprising to hear (and with Jason on an acoustic guitar no less).
The night ended with a suitably epic Smiles stretched out for nearly ten minutes before spinning into total aural chaos. As I left my seat I was longing for more of that from Spiritualized.
Setlist
Here It Comes
Hey Jane
Electricity
Heading For The Top Now
Freedom
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
So Long You Pretty Thing
‘A’ Song
Perfect Miracle
Take Your Time
Electric Mainline
——
Come Down Easy
Walking With Jesus
Smiles
The show was rather short too. 1 hour and 50 minutes by my count.
