I fell in love with the sweet sensation / I gave my heart to a simple chord / I gave my soul to a new religion / Whatever happened to you? / Whatever happened to our rock’n’roll?” sang tour opener Black Rebel Motorcycle Club guitarist Peter Hayes April 29 at the Vic Theatre. For all intents and purposes, he could have been singing about tour headliner Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce.

Sixteen years ago, Pierce and his Spacemen 3 bandmates were churning out concept album drone ruminations on drug use and religion. Back then, BRMC bassist Robert Turner was six years old. Now BRMC is all grown up and wielding a heavy mixture of shoegazing pop and Jesus & Mary Chain dreariness while Pierce has moved onto the orchestral soundscapes of Spiritualized. Oh how the times have changed.

BRMC kicked the evening into high gear with a blistering set including “Red Eyes and Tears,” and current alternative radio favorite “Love Burns” off their 2001 self-titled debut.

After the black leather-clad rock of BRMC, Spiritualized took the stage to a sensory overload of blue neon lights and the opening guitar riff to “Electricity” off 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space.

Pierce and his six-man band hammered through a career-spanning set of Spiritualized and Spacemen 3 material. Psychedelic rocker “Take Me to the Other Side” and the VU-esque “Walkin’ With Jesus” from Spacemen 3’s 1987 release Perfect Prescription made appearances along with material off of 2001’s Let It Come Down including “On Fire” and “Out of Sight.” The space between songs was often filled with space rock sonic bombardments.

In a reclusive gesture, Pierce faced stage right for the entirety of the show rather than looking at the audience. Pierce never even opened his mouth aside from singing. Wearing a shirt that read “Amazing Grace” on the front, he sang openly of his past problems with drugs with lines like, “Love in the middle of the afternoon / Just me and my spike in my arm and my spoon,” from “I Think I’m in Love.”

For an encore, the group played only one song