last night i saw the 'amazing grace' tour of spiritualized, a whopping two-hour set with 17 songs spanning each album. sadly, the new material goes into the 3/4 gospel chord lament one time too many, jason is now seemingly nailed to his chair for the whole set and that thighpaulsaundra guy stolen from julian cope's band shoots daggers at both the band and the audience as he plays the tinkering little chords. i haven't been to such a beautifully loud, orchestrated show in such a long time but sadly, it was very manufactured. progressive dream rock?

i got to thinking about how i've been a fan of that band for something like eight years, which is a third of my life. the audience was dumbed into silence - no feeing of ecstatic grace like at the field day radiohead performance...just a dull uneasyness in my stomach for a great band (man) gone on a severe ego trip.

speaking of which, the 'different strokes' concept is in full swing these days. reminds me of the lounge radiohead show, or more honestly, former rabid weird al fans all grown up.