Although I’ve been a fan of The Church for over two decades since I first heard 1990’s Gold Afternoon Fix, I’d only seen them play live on one occasion and that was in 2004 at Bowery Ballroom on the tour for the album Forget Yourself. I’d skipped their recent stops here on their 30th anniversary acoustic tour last year as well as the tour for their 20th studio album Untitled #23 (they counted 3 EPs released in the early ’80s as part of the 23) back in 2009 and after seeing this show, I really regret doing so.
Simply put, this was one for the ages. With no openers and no encores and absolutely nothing but not one, not two, but three full-length albums from different phases of their career played from start to finish in reverse chronological order. In addition to the sheer length of the show (3 1/2 hours including two 15 minute intermissions between sets), this was a daring move since it placed the material that more casual fans are most familiar with (1988’s commercial breakthrough Starfish) at the very end of the set. Of course, this means that these fans were forced to stay through Untitled #23 (the first album they played) as well as 1992’s Priest=Aura before they could hear “Under the Milky Way”, but while the Starfish set was a nice cap to the evening, the real treats came earlier.
Admittedly, it started off a little sluggishly with the first half of Untitled #23 finding an astonishingly trim Steve Kilbey, newly bearded guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, guitarist Peter Koppes, keyboardist Craig Wilson and drummer Tim Powles still looking to find their footing. Songs like the recent singles “Deadman’s Hand” and “Pangaea” almost sounded like warm-ups, albeit enjoyable sounding ones. It wasn’t until they got to the album’s 8th track “Anchorage” that this show really took off. Simply put, it all came together on this track. Encapsulating a set where Kilbey and Willson-Piper switched instruments periodically almost between each song, this one found Koppes on bass joined by a roadie on the same instrument and their manager Tiare Helberg on backing vocals as well. Instead of a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, this was a case where the melodrama of the song was really brought out by all of the extra musicians.
After several more songs from Untitled #23 and one of the aforementioned intermissions, it was time for Priest=Aura. There was a costume change as they wore slightly different clothes for this set and it’s almost as if they were playing like a different band, too. Though they only played four dates in support of this album when it came out in 1992 and even though some of the songs from it have rarely, if ever, been played live since, this album sounded absolutely incredible. They were on fire from start to finish with songs like “Feel,” “Ripple” and “Paradox” astonishing the crowd and with some long-time fans singing along to every word as well. The show hit its peak with “The Disillusionist” featuring Kilbey’s off-mic vocals at the end of the song and the almost 10-minute ripper “Chaos” a few songs afterwards. The show was worth it for this segment alone.
Finally, after another intermission, it was time for Starfish. It sounded great, but honestly after the peak of Priest=Aura, it was almost an afterthought albeit a great one. “Antenna” and “Reptile” were the ones that really hit the spot for me during this portion of the set, but it seemed like towards the end, both band and audience were slightly fatigued, albeit understandably so. Before the final song, “Hotel Womb”, Kilbey announced that there would be no encore and this was the end of the show. Still, here’s the sum total. 3 albums, no more and no less and with a show time that rivals Bruce Springsteen. Wow.
The photos on this page were all taken by Kathy Easthagen at the Fine Line Music Café on April 13th, 2010, which was the date of the Minneapolis stop of their 30th anniversary acoustic tour.
