Just the other day, I was talking about my concert bucket list and how its getting close to empty these days. Well, after July 14th, that list will be even smaller as Jason Pierce, aka J Spaceman, will bring Spiritualized to Buffalo's Waiting Room. The long running shoegaze outfit, which formed in 1990 after former Pierce band Spaceman 3 dissolved, released one of the most important albums of the 90s in Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (97). Last year, the long tortured and frequently ill Pierce released Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the band's 7th studio album and best effort in years, featuring one of the best kiss offs to the music business I have ever heard ("So Long You Pretty Thing").

Now admittingly, there have not been a ton of shows at the Waiting Room so far that have been up my alley, but this one is, and it could (hopefully) be one of the first shows there that really tests the room both sound and space wise. Spiritualized doesn't come to Buffalo often (Town Ballroom, 2008 was the last) and given Pierce's health, who knows if he ever will again, so GO TO THIS SHOW.

While a formal announcement has yet to be made, TicketFly is reporting the show to be on July 14th at 8:00pm, so I am assuming this is a go. No on-sale date is known, but tickets look to be around $25.

The thing about Spiritualized albums is the latest one could very well be the last one these days.  Frontman Jason Pierce, or J. Spaceman, has not exactly been the cleanest bill of health over the last few years.  His 2008 album Songs in A&E was inspired from a near deadly case of pneumonia, and Sweet Heart Sweet Light, his latest, and best album since his landmark Ladies & Gentlemen We are Floating in Space, came about after going through chemotherapy to deal with a very serious liver disease.  Luckily for us, at least for now, Pierce's health scares have not kept him from releasing music, but while no Spiritualized album is bad in my book, Songs in A&E was one of those good, not great albums, consisting of a handful of short, filler tracks that in my opinion took away from the album highlights.


Sweet Heat Sweet Light though, from open to close, is a model of consistency and familiarity as love, death, drugs, and higher powers, themes that are no strangers to past Spiritualized albums, once again are at the center of the band's latest collection of classic rock influenced tunes of psychedelics and gospel.  After the gorgeous string led intro "Huh?", Pierce wastes no time ushering in his best single in years, the exhilarating, nearly 9 minute force "Hey Jane".  Not many acts these days can release a 9 minute single, but not many acts have perfected the accessible, yet huge epic like Spiritualized have over the years.


Other highlights from the album include the "Too Late", whose lyrics touch on taking risks with love, and the outcomes that come from those risks, and "Life is a Problem", which finds Pierce fearing the after life, in particular whether he will find himself in Heaven to see his mother again, pleading with Jesus to be his "airplane" or "automobile" to ensure his safe arrival.  The album isn't all gloom though as rockers "Hey Jane", "I Am What I Am", and "Get What You Deserve" all drive the album with nods to the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, and Pink Floyd.


Sweet Heart Sweet Light closes with the three part stunner "So Long Your Pretty Thing".  Opening with a Pierce and daughter duet of a sweet lullaby tailor made for a come down, the tired frontman then reaches out to Jesus, God, or anyone else willing to listen to his pleads for help. Finally, the coda, which recalls A&E standout "Soul on Fire", is both heartbreaking and uplifting, and holds the title of my favorite musical moment of the year.  Pierce seems to have come to terms that his Rock n Roll lifestyle is nearing the end, as age, health, and family have all become greater priorities.  You would be hard to find more humbling lyrics as J. Spaceman sees his "dreams of diamond rings" fade away and "sail on" in the incredible refrain.  A fitting ending to an album that is as much about defeat as hope.

Pencil Pimp - Sepalcure by amadeusblog

In 1987, Jason Pierce's then-band, Spacemen 3, released the album The Perfect Prescription, featuring the song "Ode to Street Hassle." If that homage to Lou Reed wasn't overt enough, Pierce (AKA J Spaceman) in his current incarnation, Spiritualized, reminds you of his affinity with the first single from their seventh studio album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light: "Hey Jane."

By now, you're probably familiar with the psychedelic gospel J Spaceman has been preaching, and if that's the case, "Hey Jane" won't be any sort of transformational experience. But for some it may be an interesting use of the life/death dichotomy in song. The press release even regarded it as Spiritualized "at their most vibrant; full voiced and utterly sublime" (read: a return to their soaring Rock -n- Roll after an album of acoustic-tinged downers followed Pierce's well-publicized brush with death).

Frankly, it wouldn't take much persuasion for me to agree that J Spaceman's work has been on the decline since Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, but, to be fair, I haven't heard this entire album. Either way, one must admit that in the music world Pierce has become an institution, and institutions, musical or otherwise, remain as a result of their inertia and crumble only long after their time has passed. So, "don't just do something, sit around instead." It's a much more comfortable position from which to anticipate the inevitable. ... And as you're lounging, listen to this song. Everything is relative, right? So what's eight minutes wasted on one song you may not consider Spiritualized's best when you could have spent the even more time listening to that Lou Reed/Metallica album. Hell, you might even like the jam enough to pick up Sweet Heart Sweet Light when it's released April 16th.