Spiritualized, ABC, Glasgow

Spiritualized are not really known for being full of surprises, so it is with a start that we realise that they are beginning the set with ‘Come Together’, a track that in the past has been saved up for the ‘big finish’. It feels like a challenge – if this is the beginning then where can they go from here? As if in answer, the band plunge headlong into the epic recent single ‘Hey Jane’.

On record it’s an ambitious, carefully calibrated, ecstatic rollercoaster ride of a track, driven by a Krautrock rhythm and bursts of luminous energy. Played live it would benefit from more speed and less haste. The bass heavy sound obscures some of the more subtle changes that hold its three-songs-in-one structure together, but as the band hit their stride and the lights kick in, it no longer feels too early in the evening to be exposed to Spiritualized at full tilt.

Bombarded by noise and strobes I have a moment where I realise that in other circumstances these techniques could be used to break a prisoner down, but this is more of an open prison than musical Guantanamo… The insistence of the rhythm, the repetition and the improbable energy generated from stage mean there is little choice but to capitulate.

‘Lord Let It Rain On Me’ offers respite after the onslaught, and for the rest of the set the new songs are mixed in with more familiar ones. ‘Mary’ proves again that this band can keep working with the same basic raw materials yet still impress.

‘She Kissed Me And It Felt Like A Hit’ is typical - lot of wrong things add up to be right. Few frontmen can pull off wearing white jeans and sunglasses as Jason Pierce does tonight; Drummer Jon Mattock should by rights be exhausted and yet he appears laid back; tambourine shaking backing singers should be naff and yet they are the element around which the band cohere.

‘Lay Back In The Sun’ makes it possible to block out all the chatterers and Instagram-ers that have become inevitable at gigs. Drawn into the vortex created by the hypnotic hurtling spirals and pulsating op-art graphics of the backdrop, ‘The Slide Song’ and then material from the forthcoming ‘Sweet Heart Sweet Light’ build up and then release. There is a hint of Primal Scream in their country-mode, but the slower tracks are just the calm before the storm. ‘Electricity’ provides an opportunity for some loud guitars and segues into a final, magnificent ‘Cop Shoot Cop’ – this is a band with enough ammunition for several big finishes.