The Church - any of the congregation here? (Part Two)

Hoping to see the show this Wed.

 

I did indeed in SF. Steve's voice has aged nicely, the band were tight, and Peter Koppes with his pallor and demeanor could be starring in Weekend At Bernie's (as Bernie of course). A bit of a "greatest hits" after a lengthy intermission once the album was done start to finish .

Small hall - The Chapel - it was a sellout bit capacity couldn't have been more than 250.

 

Pick up anything cool at Church merch stand?

 

I’m seeing them Monday. Slightly off topic but I listened to a live album this morning by Heron Oblivion, oddly enough, entitled Chapel, recorded live in San Francisco.

 

Love Heron Oblivion.

 

It's not looking good that I'll be able to make the Boston show. I also saw that they're playing the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun, which I've always had a good time at but is a frankly bizarre venue for The Church.

 

Yes, it is on the Raven label and from memory, it is not considered to be a well mastered CD!

 

I did not I'm afraid... I've gone right off the merch in my middle age...

 

The Church are one of the few bands that sells music and dvds just so you know for future reference!

 

Probably the second best Church show I've seen (They'll never top the one from five years ago where they played all of Starfish, Priest/Aura and Untitled 23). Starfish was lovingly and faithfully done, with Kilbey singing Spark. Ian Haug cut loose less than expected overall, there was a fifth guy who played keys, acoustic guitar and even some lead.

Second set was heavy on deeper cuts, not always the most accessible ones. Kilbey got his two-song spot to be the frontman without bass-- He's become a bit of a ham lately. The Louisiana/Tantalized finale was great. The three-song encore was an epic in itself and included "Unguarded Moment"-- Don't know how much they play that over the years, but I know I've never heard it.

Can't say Marty wasn't missed, especially since they did Starfish with only 1/2 the band that made it, but the current Church seems perfectly vital.

 

Went to the TO show at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday night, got in nice and early and picked a spot on the rail about 15' in front of Koppes and almost perfectly centred between the two stacks as the show was mixed in stereo.

Gotta say, Starfish really blew me away. I hope they record one of these shows for a proper release because it would be awesome to have this to revisit in the home in full on quality. The American in the back who was doing keys, extra percussion and third guitar parts was great, he was playing the opening lead riff in North South East West, but having three guitars in some songs really highlighted what great guitar work is featured on this album. Reptile was probably the highlight for me, stunning and tight just like most of the Starfish set, loved seeing Lost as well. Sound was really nicely mixed and I was very surprised to measure an average of 100dBs when usually small club shows are measuring 115-125 (Ministry at The Opera House earlier this year was AVERAGING 125dBs) - may not have needed my -25dB filters and could have got away with -15 but nevertheless the sound was incredibly well balanced and everything came through the mix distinctly. Was a joy watching all the various guitar parts.

Highly recommended.

Steve is quite chatty and I almost wanted to correct him poo-poo'ing vinyl as he introduced Spark as being the song where you'd have to turn over the record in the days where everything went scratch whoosh, etc., to say "maybe your records are like that" haha.

This album would make for a great 5.1 mix.

 

Saw the Chicago show the other night. The Starfish set was kind of up and down for me - some of it sounded pretty powerful and, of course, every song is great - but some of it felt kind of stiff for me and they should just drop "Spark".

I enjoyed the 2nd set the most as I didn't always know what was coming. They actually played some of their 90s tunes that we haven't heard in a while and the songs off the new album worked well here.

The encore was a bit dull, to me - a couple of older songs that I've seen them play many times before and a not-great tune off the new album.

Ian is an ok guitar player, but it's clear at this point that they need 2 guys to fill in for Marty. The guitar/keys guy in the back is Jefferey Cain from Remy Zero who collaborates with Steve on the Isadore project. He ended up playing quite a few of Marty's leads in the show.

Incidentally, I got a very nice recording of the show that is available here: www.dimeadozen.org :: EzTorrent v0.7.0r484 :: Login

 

Had planned on hitting the NYC show this Friday but that plan fell through. They're doing "Louisiana"?? Man, I wish I could go. What about "Space Saviour"?

 

Nothing from Untitled 23 in the current set.

 

Makes it a little easier to swallow. My three favorites are "One Day", "Anchorage", and the full-band live versions of "Space Saviour" (not the album-like version Steve does solo). Knew I wouldn't be seeing "One Day", naturally. But damn, I'd love to see "Louisiana". Would also love to see "Old Coast Road", but I don't think they played that once even when that album was new.

 

New Steve Kilbey solo album, Sydney Rococo, due out 23rd November.

Steve Kilbey | SFR Store

 

Not only that - it is free! I’m in line right now. Hope they are still doing Starfish complete (seen this band four times but never caught “Destination”) but at the ticket price I have no right to complain.

 

They did play Starfish in its entirety as set #1 and then played abbreviated set #2 and encore. Great show and I even got to hear “Constant In Opal” which was a surprise!

Strange venue right in middle of casino floor, but the intimacy of the area and the price were impossible to top!

 

How was the crowd? My experience has been that there's a large number of casino high-rollers and fans of "'80's music!" and I wasn't sure how anything beyond "UTMW" would go over, particularly the more psychedelic excursions.

But I'm glad that it was good!

 

Small but good crowd - I think weather kept some people home. And up front were the serious Church fans that had caught NYC and/or BOS shows already that week.

In the back seats were the venue regulars. One guy we talked to was very impressed by group having never heard them previously.

 

It’s available at 20% off here for the next few days.
Future Past Perfect (Live at the Enmore, Australia) (DVD)

 

Went to the Brisbane gig last night at the Performing Arts Centre. Starfish wouldn't make my top 5 Church albums, but I enjoyed the first set when they played the album as released. The second set was better though, some classic Church along the way. Highlights for me were Metropolis and Unguarded Moment, the latter being the 1st of the 2 song encore. They finished with Miami, also excellent.
Last time I seen the band was when they had just released Further/Deeper and Haug was settling into the band.

Overall, a great gig but reckon a non seated venue would be better suited; think the seating refrained a lot of fans rockin' out. Think the place was nearly sold out, didn't see many vacant seats.

 

Cool. Unfortunately, I haven't logged-on to dimeadozen in a few years and my membership has lapsed... maybe I'll try rejoining the club.

If we were still living in NYC we would have attended their performance, but we got to see The Church many, many times, so... no complaints. I recently ripped a number of their albums to FLAC for my FiiO player and I also did a mix of the vocal and instrumental versions of The Coffee Song. That has sounded good to my ears, and it lured me back into the four EP's from the Untitled #23 era - a great collection of stuff. I'm not always in the mood to listen to The Church, but when I am, they really hit the spot.

 

Hey Guy, how are things out there?

The current Starfish tour is excellent, but even better is the DVD discussed up thread Future, Past, Perfect to get "Spark" by MWP. Grab that while back in print.

I still need to add a bunch of Church albums to my Pono. Those EPs around U#23 are great and I especially love "So Love May Find Us"!

 

Has anyone else been enjoying this?

I received the CD a couple of days ago. It's an impressive and nicely-varied album... well written and well produced. I'm happy that he can get the funding for such a solid production in 2018.

I'm enjoying this more than I did Kilbey & Kennedy's Glow & Fade from last year. Sydney Rococo is a nice counterpoint to last year's Church album, man woman life death infinity. It's every bit as good, to my ears.