Live Review: The Church

In recent times ‘heritage’ acts have been performing their seminal albums in full. This wintry Friday night cult Sydney band The Church will revisit 1982’s The Blurred Crusade, the coming-of-age LP that followed their breakthrough debut, Of Skins And Heart – albeit reluctantly.

Indeed, frontman/bassist Steve Kilbey has long opposed nostalgia (ironically, TBC’s finale is titled Don’t Look Back) and, increasingly, commercial expectations. But the outfit – with Powderfinger’s Ian Haug replacing Marty Willson-Piper as Peter Koppes’ cohort on guitar – will then play another set, centred on their current (and 25th!) album, last year’s acclaimed Further/Deeper. Kilbey is surely in a reflective headspace. He’s just published his autobiography, Something Quite Peculiar. Meanwhile, his twin daughters have embarked on their own music careers with Say Lou Lou – closer to the synthwave Chvrches than The Church. 

For tonight’s gig there’s no support. Instead punters enter to waves of mystical ambient chants. Kilbey has expressed disdain for the New Romantic era, yet the hermetic TBC, produced by rock legend Bob Clearmountain, is a New Romantic opus in spirit, if not sound. Kilbey, in paisley-esque shirt, materialises at 9.30pm, greeting the crowd before launching into TBC’s key single, the jangly guitar-pop Almost With You. Next comes When You Were Mine, which, with its extended intro, is dark and driving – and could be contemporary alt. Field Of Mars, slower and contemplative, typifies TBC’s proto-Ride neo-psychedelia. Later Kilbey asks, “Who likes really romantic songs? I fucking don’t!” It’s his lead into To Be In Your Eyes, a paean for onetime girlfriend Jennifer Keyte (yes, the news presenter), whom Kilbey refers to only as “a colourful local identity”. A singer dissing his own tune! The Church’s TBC set encapsulates “some real rock’n’roll”, with You Took, a crowd favourite, guitar-heavy. After a quaint “intermission” The Church return, Kilbey now attired in black. He leaves behind the ‘80s 3RRR throwback vibes for Vanishing Man – high-psy that underscores The Church’s status as art-rock pioneers. Delirious, again from Further/Deeper, is glorious shoegaze. Acoustic guitars are donned for the breezy Laurel Canyon. Nonetheless, The Church’s later songs can be pretentious. Kilbey puts down his instrument for Priest=Aura’s subliminal The Disillusionist, staging it theatrically, Nick Cave-style – unconvincing. The Church revive more classics, the first 1990’s Metropolis – a rare mainstream hit, Kilbey notes archly. The biggest twist? The band dutifully play Under The Milky Way, their most famous single, and not even for the encore.