Review: Denver live show (with photos) blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2009/06/last_nights_show_the_church_wi.php#more
Last Night's Show: The Church with Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody at the Gothic Theatre, Englewood Co. By Tom Murphy in Last Night's Show
The Church The Church w/Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody Better Than: A show you'd normally expect from a band 29 years into its career. Adam Franklin's bass player had to perform sitting down due to a broken foot, which may have had something to do with tripping over Bruce Lee's grave -- or so Franklin joked early in the set. Understated humor aside, Franklin and the band performed a set of dreamy songs that crackled ever so slightly with an inner tension released with each song, as though the song's completion was a sigh of realization. The sound of guitar chords hanging like uncoiling springs made the middle section of 'Autumn Leaf' sound chilling yet gorgeous. The set ended with a ten-minute tour-de-force of Ramonesland,"which ended with a deeply resonant, thick, low end drone on Franklin's guitar that continued until after he waved goodbye for the night and left the stage.
Adam Franklin Adam Franklin Set List 1. Champs 2. Winter Girls 3. Autumn Leaf 4. Morning Rain 5. Seize the Day 6. Bolts of Melody 7. Mary Gunn 8. Big Sur 9. Theme From LSD 10. Ramonesland
Before any member of the Church took stage, an impressionistic, ethereal guitar loop played over and over until Steve Kilbey and the others took up their spots and Peter Koppes and Marty Wilson-Piper played the clipped guitar intro to "Tantalized." I don't know how he could do it after all he's been through, but Kilbey sang as beautifully as ever, and he and his band mates performed the lengthy set with an ever increasing level of energy and confidence. The ChurchJune18 09 Tom Murphy
Before playing the luminously lush "Day 5," Steve told us a story about how he had met Joe Walsh, and when he asked Joe how the Eagles were doing, Joe said saying, "I hate them fuckers when I'm not drinking." And for the rest of the night, between songs, Steve amused us with jokes and anecdotes, few of which seemed rehearsed. Kilbey struck poses with his legs apart, low to the floor. Marty in particular performed not just superbly but with a playfulness that you could see in his expressions. Highlights of the show included a particularly sweeping and moving versions of a personal favorite of mine, "A Month of Sundays," as well as an extended version of "You Took" that had the band jamming on the song for over ten minutes -- none of them was boring or self-indulgent. The show would have closed with a stretched out and fiery take on "Reptile," but we were treated to two encores, with Kilbey telling us he was too old to lie and that we were a wonderful audience. The Church gave its all for this show -- like not nearly enough bands seem to.
The Church Set List 1. Tantalized 2. Block 3. Day 5 4. North, South, East and West 5. Happenstance 6. After Everything 7. Almost With You (by David Bowie) (Editors note: this is a church song) 8. A Month of Sundays 9. Deadman's Hand 10. Pangaea 11. You Took 12. Operetta 13. Under the Milky Way 14. Reptile Encore 1 1. An Interlude 2. Space Saviour Encore 2 1. Hotel Womb Bias: The Church has written music that is part of the soundtrack of my life. Random Detail: Marty actually did end up playing a Rickenbacker bass at the show. By the Way: Untitled #23 is one of the best rock albums of recent years.
Concert Review: Slims SF: featured on Magnet Magazine site
www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/06/15/live-review-the-church-san-francisco-ca-june-12-2009/ "It's a monumental occasion for faithful Oz-rock worshippers: The Church has once again returned to California. One of the keystone elements of college rock back in the '80s, the Canberra-bred Aussie combo, led by bassist Steve Kilbey and guitarists Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes, was once part of a dazzling Australian contingent that included the Saints, Radio Birdman, Hoodoo Gurus, Died Pretty, Celibate Rifles, Screaming Tribesmen, Stems, Scientists, Moodists, Lime Spiders and Sunnyboys.
Kilbey has a sunburned look these days, like he's just returned from a couple of months in the Australian outback with Mel Gibson, shooting Mad Max XII: Burned To A Crisp, continuing the endless search for gazzoline in a post- apocalyptic wilderness. "Hello, I intended to have flowers in my hair, but they never arrived," said Kilbey. It's a dead giveaway for anyone who hasn't seen them in a while, to the musical direction the set will take. Rather than the jangly, slightly Velvet Underground-inspired folk rock of Church classics like 1983's "Electric Lash" and 1981's "The Unguarded Moment," it's the dreamy psychedelia of the band's current album, Untitled #23, heavily under the sway of David Gilmour-era Pink Floyd, that will daub your evening with shades of paisley.
If you're a die-hard Church-head, you probably enjoyed watching Koppes (or a roadie who resembled him from the back of the barn-like Slim's) tuning a small arsenal of guitars for the 50 minutes that preceded the set. Others might have preferred a dozen Popeye cartoons. Then there was the amp meltdown that brought things to a grinding halt for 15 minutes, about half an hour into the set. The breakdown seemed to catch Kilbey at a loss for standup material to fill the void. To kill time, he described the band's drive north from Los Angeles, which must have taken a strange turn, indeed. Kilbey referred to both the Andersen's Split-Pea Soup restaurant near Buellton on the coast-hugging Highway 101 and the cattle-staging area dubbed "Cowschwiz," located near Coalinga. It's actually the Harris Ranch, the major supplier of ground beef for the In-N-Out hamburger chain, and it's deep in California's central valley on Highway 5. You can't take both roads. Then again, who's to say the band who cut the enthralling "Two Places At Once" in 1994 couldn't pull it off? "Have you ever noticed, the farther north you get in California, the less you hear people shout out, 'Play some rock 'n' roll!'?" said Kilbey to Willson-Piper. "They're more sophisticated up here." And play the Church did after the amp was fixed, although not the mindless party soundtrack some L.A. hecklers might have preferred.
It was a treat to finally hear 1988's "Under The Milky Way," the grizzled Aussies' sole American chart entry, played live. The last time I saw the Church, opening for Echo & The Bunnymen in 1986, the song was just a glimmer in its collective eye."Deadman's Hand," "Happenstance" and "Pangaea," all from Untitled #23, are taken at a measured, Dark Side Of The Moon pace. It's surprising to hear the Church has soaked up a bit of the Bunnymen's essence over the years. Kilbey enriches the new songs with his 12-string, while Koppes' slide work on "Happenstance" is exemplary. If the recent stuff isn't as groundbreaking as its earlier material, the Church, like the Rolling Stones before it, should be granted a lifetime pass from creating spectacular new music. The band has already done plenty of that." -Jud Cost
Concert Review: The Church, The Triple Door, Seattle, WA 6/15/09
The Church's tour behind their latest record Untitled #23 made it's fourth stop last night in Seattle, and from my perspective, they were firing on all cylinders. They played at one of the city's premier venues, The Triple Door. Upscale as the venue was, nothing could get between the band and their rabid fans. The opening song, "Tantalized" set the tone for the evening. After an extended introduction, they locked in, and the crowd went nuts. For two solid hours The Church played "hits," near hits, and tracks from Untitled # 23 to a sold out house filled with rapturous fans. The Church have been incredibly prolific over the past 30 years, and have a huge amount of catalog to choose from. Which is why the set list at this show was so impressive. Pulling out obscurities from Priest = Aura and Gold Afternoon Fix made fans like myself very happy indeed. I have always been a huge Steve Kilbey fan. His solo album The Slow Crack remains one of my all time favorites. But Marty Willson-Piper's guitar work absolutely stole the show last night. Usually a person's attention is riveted to the vocalist, but I could not take my eyes off of Piper. He found an opportunity on literally every song to show off his amazing guitar skills. It was never about showboating though. The sounds emanating from his guitar were simply riveting. And I have to mention the fact that Piper hung out at the merch table for a couple of hours before the concert, happily meeting and greeting fans. I saw a lot of cell phone pix taken, and it was pretty damned cool. Adam Franklin opened, and did a great job. While I really enjoy his latest Spent Bullets album, somehow things seemed a little slow live. Until he pulled out an amazing cover of Roxy Music's "Pyjamarama," that is. His band absolutely turned my head with their version of this classic song.
The evening ended with the one two punch of "Under The Milky Way" and "Reptile." The guy next to me had mentioned that he had proposed to his wife during "Under The Milky Way" some 20 years ago. I watched him pull out a new ring to reaffirm their vows during the song, and saw her say "Yes." It summed up the entire evening for me. A band who are 30 years into their career releasing one of the best records they have ever recorded, touring in a van, back where they started. And loving every minute of it. The Church live are as as powerful live as they have ever been. Maybe better even than when I first saw them on the Starfish tour, oh those many years ago.
Pre-Concert article for Seattle
www.thestranger.com/seattle/up-and-coming/Content?oid=1670530 Monday 6/15 The Church, Adam Franklin (Triple Door) The Church and Adam Franklin (of Swervedriver fame and also kicking it with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino in Magnetic Morning) prove that rockers can "mature" with dignity while not blanding the fuck out. Australia's the Church have been honing their lustrous psych pop for 29 years, scoring a couple of hits, but during this long span, like a more palatable Legendary Pink Dots, just unassumingly churning out moody, baroque, artful songs for a diehard cult following. In Swervedriver, Franklin wrote a slew of classic power-shoegaze anthems; his solo work hasn't attained those heights, but recent albums like Spent Bullets and Bolts of Melody tap into a more subdued, equally beautiful strain of epic rock. His somewhat complicated tunesmithery paradoxically connects with a disarming emotional directness (see particularly the gradually swelling ballad "It Hurts to See You Go"). DAVE SEGAL
