Spiritualized played Letterman & Terminal 5 with Nikki Lane (video, pics & setlist)

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Three or four chords, a handful of verses and a brazen guitar line are all Jason Pierce, a k a J. Spaceman, needs for songs that can heave along for a good 10 minutes without wearing out their welcome… While Mr. Pierce rasps out his vocals, the keyboards swell, backup singers deliver oohs and la-las, and guitars work themselves up toward scrabbling tremolo and feedback. Amid it all, Mr. Pierce presents himself as a disillusioned hedonist, a sufferer with himself to blame, a lost soul: alone in the vast turmoil of the music, mourning lost chances and wishing for more.

On albums like this year’s Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the band’s seventh in 20 years, Spiritualized deploys a large cast: strings, horns, singers, free-jazz saxophonists, all taking their place in the music’s tidal crest and ebb. Onstage things were leaner, with a five-man band and two female backup singers. Yet the music grew just as colossal — perhaps even more so, with fewer distracting details in the grand expanse. -[NY Times]

Spiritualized with special guest Nikki Lane played Terminal 5 on May 7th, part of a round of dates for Jason Pierce and the band that brought them to Chicago and sees them hit Union Transfer in Philadelphia tonight (5/11).

If you miss thje shows, look for streaming audio via NPR from Spiritualized’s appearance at 9:30 Club in DC last night (5/10). Spiritualized also appeared on Letterman on May 7 (the same night as T5). Watch that, along with more pictures and the setlist from the NY show, below…

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Spiritualized on David Letterman

Nikki Lane….

Spiritualized