Spiritualized
Los Angeles, Wiltern
November 13, 2001

No opening act. 2+ hours of spiritualized. Full band, brass section, choir, c'mon you just can't go wrong with that!!

I almost didn't go tonight, my friend talked me into buying a ticket at the last minute so I was sitting really far away at the Wiltern Theatre. I've seen Spiritualized several times and there just isn't any reason to stand in front of Jason Pierce because he doesn't move at all. Sitting about ten rows from the back was a great place to see the show that they put on.

For those of you that didn't catch them on The Tonight Show, let me try to describe their stage setup. In the front row, Jason is on the far right and his microphone is parallel with the stage. So he's not facing the audience, he's facing the rest of the band. There are two other guitarists and a bass player in front. Now the second row consists of a keyboard player (behind Jason), a drummer in the middle and another guy playing a xylophone, timpani, and various other percussion instruments. No we're not done yet, behind Jason and the keyboard player is the 6-piece choir and on the other side of the stage is the 5-piece brass section that consists of a French horn, trombone, two trumpets and a saxophone.

Now for the more important question of: Was all this worth it? Hell yeah.

The Wiltern is a fairly large theatre, at least I never thought Spiritualized would play a venue like this. The sound was fantastic. I could hear all the subtle sounds that were on the records but never present in a live setting before. Also, Jason didn't over use the brass section and the choir. A lot of their material didn't use the extra musicians so instead of reworking the tracks to fit them in, they just left the stage during those numbers. And there were tons of 'classic' Spiritualized songs, even a couple Spaceman 3 moments which are always great to hear. Usually I would be thrilled that a band plays a bunch of old/new stuff, but I really like the new album and would've liked to hear more of it. Here's the complete setlist:

Cop Shoot Cop Electricity
Shine A Light
Born Never Asked
Electric Mainline
Out of Sight
On Fire
No God, Only Religion
Walking With Jesus
Take your time
Let It Flow
All of My Tears
You Won't Get To Heaven
Don't Just Do Something

encore

Take Me To The Other Side
Come Together

encore

Lord, Can You Hear Me?

I guess I should mention that their light show is fantastic as always. If you can take the strobe lights without passing out then you'll enjoy seeing them live. I hope Jason brings everyone back for a second round of dates before starting the next album.