Leisureland in Galway was awash with white noise on Saturday night as Spiritualized tried to take their fans on another magical misery tour, complete with driving instrumental workouts and a blinding light show which re sembled a million oncoming headlights. Singer Jason Pierce started the downward spiral by singing an intro which sounded like O Happy Day crossed with a funeral dirge, then led the band into a crackling, hair-frizzing version of Electricity, turning the dial up to a shattering, strobedrenched climax.
It could have been the start of something beautiful and doomed, and Spirtualized should have blown us away with waves of explosive emotion, but instead they flatlined in a clinical, chemical burst.
At their best, Spiritualized make a wondrous, woebe gotten drone, and their repetition becomes hypnotic and ultimately healing; but they walk a scalpel's edge between mesmerising and numbing, and last Saturday's gig left all but the most dedicated fan feeling slightly cold.
Medication lacked that sharp, paranoiac taste which made it such a screwed-up epic, while Broken Heart was devoid of its acrid sense of desolation. Slowing down the current single, I Think I'm In Love, to an almost turgid pace seemed a rather bad idea, like Tindersticks deciding to be even quieter and more depressing than usual.
In the end, most of the songs from their critically-acclaimed album, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, seemed to fuse together into one shapeless chunk of grey matter, then crash in a nebulous soundscape and a nova of white light.
On a good night, Spiritualized can shine with the brilliance of a thousand stars, but at Leisureland in Galway on Saturday night they were just treading on the stratosphere. Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, and there's no atmosphere.
Later, in the GPO Club in Eglington Street, the atmosphere was closer to unbridled joy as DJ Fatboy Slim kept the clubbers hopping till the early hours of the morning. The bar had shut at twelve midnight, in accordance with strict licensing laws, but Fatboy Slim, a.k.a. Norman Cook, served up some intoxicating big beats. Highlights included Cook's Top Ten remix of Wildchild's Renegade Master and his eagerly-awaited remix of Corner shop's Brimful Of Asha.
