I went to see Spiritualized at Brighton Dome and it took me back

There was a point in 1997 when you couldn’t avoid Spiritualized, at least not in my halls of residence.  And watching them last night at the Brighton Dome, for a moment I was transported back to the mid-nineties. There I was, lying on the floor of my room,  “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” on the CD player as that strange bloke who did Naval Architecture earnestly informed me that, ‘Jason Pierce is an absolute genius’.  Spiritualized, and more specifically its enigmatic lead singer, have always attracted a certain type of obsessive male fan, plenty of whom were in the audience last night (the guy next to me had come all the way from Verona).  But dear reader, I have a confession.  I didn’t really get it then and the passing of time has not changed my mind. I felt strangely underwhelmed last night. I was however, clearly in the minority.  The audience came for expertly played space rock, dry ice and white-clad gospel singers and they got it.  Jason ‘the genius’ Pierce himself spent the evening staring at his music stand saying nothing but ‘letting the music speak for itself’.  Would it hurt to ask us if we were ‘ready to rock?’ It’s one thing to let the quality of the musicianship do all the talking, but there was absolutely no sense of performance to the gig and to me it all felt a little too earnest.  This wasn’t helped by the fact that we were all seated, although given the average age of the crowd that probably wasn’t a bad thing.  I longed for something I could sing along to but still left happy enough to have had a trip down memory lane.  Now where did I put my ‘Choose Life’ poster?