Spiritualized

The Spiritualized show on the Saturday before Christmas, served as the closing event of The Sage's 5th birthday celebrations, and the band certainly gave the sell out crowd a treat.

Performing as part of the 'Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space' celebration tour, which saw the band perform their seminal album in full.

Originally released in 1997, the album came out to huge acclaim, featuring highly in nearly every music magazines top 10 polls for the album of the year, including reaching the number one position in the NME, and it was certainly deserved, with the album, in my opinion, one of the best of the decade.

The band took the stage to a round of applause, which was then followed by an awkward silence, as the band took their time in setting up their instruments, which in a room as large as the main hall creates an awkward situation.

But as the opening chords of 'Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space' rose up, all was forgotten, and the audience quickly knew that they were in for quite a sublime performance.

The usual Spiritualized 5-piece set up, fronted by Jason Pierce, aka J Spaceman, was accompanied by part of the Sage's own orchestra and gospel singers, and this resulted in an atmospheric performance, something that really made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, something quite beautiful.

When the band launched into 'Come Together', a huge cheer came up from the audience, and as with all performances at the Sage, the sound was simply excellent, everything was in proportion with each other, nothing drowning one another out, and with the orchestra also playing, I thought that it would be an impossible feat.

However, I was quickly proved wrong, and as the band continued with the likes of 'I Think I'm In Love', which sounded simply epic, and only added to the atmosphere inside the venue, and 'Electricity', which being my favourite song on the album, didn't disappoint when it came to being performed live.

By the end of the performance, I['d been given a true lesson in the art of Shoegaze indie, and was suitably able to the say that it was one of the best concerts I've attended.

With the reissued, remastered version of the album having been released at the end of November on ATP records, it's definitely worth either revisiting an album which you might not have heard in a while, or an album which you've never heard before. 'Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space' is definitely an album which will change you in one way or another.

It must also be said that, after 1300 artists performing at the Sage in the 5 years, Spiritualized proved to be an excellent way to see in the birthday; I look forward to what the next 5 years has to offer.

FUTURE GIGS

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