Dublin May 7 2022

[sunray]

Clock on the wall says a quarter to four, tired and jaded looking for the door. One mans rock n roll is another mans bore and i'm gone. Your fading charms...your fading charms.

I really wanted to enjoy this show but it was off from start to finish. I've not felt this deflated leaving the Olympia since i saw JAMC touring Munki.
I think i had quite a similar experience to Greeny's in Brighton except he enjoyed the opening salvo. Here in Dublin it was flat as a pancake, zero energy and very much 'Spiritualized noise by numbers'.
The rockers just didn't rock, no power or volume. Let It Bleed, a song i love, didn't kick like it should at the chorus. Best Thing You Never Had was as anaemic as others have commented on elsewhere, it didn't go anywhere or do anything and not in a good way.

Conversely, although there were too many of them, the ballads sounded better than usual. I noticed the backing singers far more than i ever have before and they added something to the sound.
Perfect Miracle and Soul on Fire should be got rid of though, they are dreadful.
Sail on Through; lovely song but it's no set closer.

Best part of the night was the last 20 seconds of A Song when they hammered one chord and for a moment you thought they were going to segue into TMTTOS or Things'll Never... Should have ended the gig right there. The next five songs were totally superfluous.

The other half thought it started poorly but picked up and then sagged with the ballads. She was also shocked that they walked off after Sail on Through and then did an encore of So Long. Where was the wigout? Overall she thought it was ok but had seen them better.

I'll just put this one down as one of those nights where nothing clicked for me.

[MrBadger]

Welllllllll....I really enjoyed it. This was my first gig (and outing to a 'big city') for a few years and I was just glad to be there. Bar the new songs the setlist was almost the same as when they played Belfast a few years back. Like others on here I'd prefer some older songs in the mix (and the big 'noise' climax of yesteryear). I thought that some of the ballads from ANH were rescued by Doggen's guitar playing which was sensational (as was the bass, esp on Let it Bleed ).

More to the point....

1) Who brought their c. 10 year old daughter along?! (first row of the seats). That was very cool and I could see she got a lot of waves/thumbs up from the crowd at the end.

2) And the guy down the front (from Hungary - now in Newtownards), hope you enjoyed your first Spz show and you got home ok...long way back. Sorry I didn't catch your name...

[sunray]

@MrBadger, Is that you Broc?

I read elsewhere online that the kid was clearly in distress during the noise/strobe sections.

Other thoughts that have come to me (there may be more to follow):

Keyboardist seemed to be playing sax and string parts. At times he was inaudible though.

Bass wasn't loud enough but he was obviously enjoying himself. He and Doggen were having a joke to themselves at the start of So Long.

I thought I'm Coming Home Again surprisingly did work at that point in the gig. Or maybe i was too deflated from the opening 3 tunes and a change of tack sat well with me.

I fucking hate whoopers at gigs. Nearly every gig i go to now feels like i'm attending with a flock of geese. Whoop for every little thing, just to be heard more than anything. Totally destroys any quiet sections. The breakdown in The Morning After was particularly laughable; whoopers and shushers in competition with each other until the moment had passed.

God, i'm in a fucking mood today

[Lostinspace]

Agree with OP above, I really wanted to love this gig, and there were some great moments but overall it was just kind of off. The sound at the start was really hollow/tinny or something, I think it just hits off the balconies in the Olympia and doesn't reach the back properly. Also found the set list odd, I understand they want to play the recent albums but it was like they purposely left out many of the strongest tracks???

Yea just felt a bit deflated afterwards. Not the usual exhilaration. Thought it was just me as everyone on twtr is saying it was amazing!!

And talkers/shouters in the crowd.... Omg.

Don't mean to be critical as I really love this band for years and obv what they've produced during lockdown is amazing. And sub-par Spzd is still awesome by any normal standards. I just think there are limits to what they can reproduce live, at the moment anyway.

[MrBadger]

James is my name....

Yeah I noticed there was some hilarity at the start of So Long...not something you often see at a Spz gig. I didn't think the sound overall was great - the 3rd guitarist (an indie rock version of David Baddiel) seemed inaudible too.

I only noticed the girl at the end of the gig and she seemed happy then (and wearing a huge pair of headphones). My daughter is 8 and hates noise (even the cinema is a step too far) so this wouldn't be for her...

[charles w]

I really wanted to enjoy this show but it was off from start to finish.

Here in Gateshead it was flat as a pancake, zero energy and very much 'Spiritualized noise by numbers'.

Perfect Miracle and Soul on Fire should be got rid of though, they are dreadful.

I'll just put this one down as one of those nights where nothing clicked for me.

I've edited your post to reflect my feelings on Gateshead on 4th May. I was so flat after it I couldn't even bring myself to start a thread for that gig. No-one else seems to have bothered too.

Flat from the moment Hey Jane started. I've heard louder bluetooth speakers.

I had the odd feeling of it being the last time I would see Spiritualized. Whether it's because they won't tour or whether I just won't bother next time, I don't know. On previous tours I've seen my most 'local' show then bought tickets for a show later in the tour that may have involved a return journey of 550 miles, an expensive train ticket and an overnight hotel stay. I've maybe seen them 30+ times but for the last decade it's been a case of diminishing returns for me.

[olan]

Dunno what to make of the gig really. I quite enjoyed the opening and closing numbers but long sections of the show just drifted past me and meant precisely nothing. The fact I was unwell probably didn't help. Hi ho, any year with a new LP and a tour in it has to be a good year doesn't it?

[sunray]

Just been talking to a friend of mine who was also at the gig. As i was so dejected at the end and just wanted to get the fuck out of there i didn't hang around for a chat last night. He has also been with the band from day one and as last night was only his second gig in three years (the first being Low in Vicar St. last week. Which he likened to a religious experience. I thought it was good but not THAT good) i was expecting him to love it.
He did not. Was very disappointed afterwards. He thought 'flat' was the perfect description. Wasn't keen on the setlist and surprised at the proliferation of chatting in the crowd. Not a patch on Vicar St in 2012 was his final assessment (he is correct on that score).

When EWB leaked someone here said that they felt they were listening to it through a screen (funnily enough that's how i feel about ANH). Well, that's what this gig was like. It was almost like everything was one dimensional, no physicality or visceral impact.

Were you upstairs Olan? I was downstairs 9/10 rows back and dead centre. Was keeping an eye out for you before they came on.

Three of my last four Spiritualized experiences have been grim affairs over a period of 10 years. Onwards and upwards...hopefully!

[olan]

Were you upstairs Olan? I was downstairs 9/10 rows back and dead centre. Was keeping an eye out for you before they came on.

Three of my last four Spiritualized experiences have been grim affairs over a period of 10 years. Onwards and upwards...hopefully!

I was downstairs at the back. I was with a group of people who all felt it was a bit of a miss....

I'm not a huge fan of the Olympia. The balcony means that the sound can be very hit and miss. We felt it wasn't loud enough and sounded really weird, like muffled but clear at the same time. I can't really describe it accurately.

[dspacemen3]

Well just for balance, I absolutely loved it. Was right at the front, sounded great. Jason's voice is the best it's been in years and there were plenty of jams and noisy parts among the ballads. Thought the setlist worked well, was never bored and I'd prefer to hear the batch of new and newish songs by themselves instead of sandwiched between older material, much as I loved it, it's a different spz now. I am glad I knew what was coming, even listened to anh for the first time in over a year on the drive up to "get ready" and wasn't constantly wishing/hoping that think I'm in love or take me to the other side was about to start. The morning after was as good as I'd hoped live and the humour of songs like perfect miracle and I'm your man really came through (not that J broke his poker face or took off his shades for one second, obviously!). What a joy to be back in a packed room for two hours with one of my favourite bands, still evolving and still playing beautiful new music.

[heisenberg]

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2022/0509/12 ... ace-cadet/