The Church, Darling James @ Ormond Hall, Melbourne (31/10/2014)
The Church returned to Melbourne on Friday night to perform all tracks from their new (25th) album Further/ Deeper. Now in their 35th year, it is clear that they retain a dedicated fan base and the audience embraced the twelve new songs as though they were already long-time favourites from yesteryear.
Support on the night came from Darling James. While they usually perform in full band mode, on this occasion they performed in a stripped back style of vocals and acoustic guitar (James O’Brien), electric guitar (Zac Rush) and harmony vocals (Tom Baker). This wasn’t an issue for this classy up-and-coming unit. The acoustic setting enhanced their Crowded House type delivery, with their quality songs being particularly well received. Performances of Antidote, The Half of It and Pen To Papyrus were among the highlights. Great vocals and an atmospheric backing combined smoothly for an extremely enjoyable listening experience. A special mention to acknowledge the classy guitar playing of Rush. |
The arrival of The Church soon created an electric feeling in the air. This incarnation of the band features Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and long term drummer Tim Powels, who have been joined by ex-Powderfinger guitarist Ian Haug. The Church seemed to relish performing the new tracks and Kilbey repeatedly expressed their appreciation for the crowd’s enthusiastic reaction to the new songs.
The songs themselves are terrific and the audience response wasn’t surprising. The Church have always been sonically interesting; a band that has been prepared to push their layered textured sound rather than succumb to “easy” less interesting mainstream expectation. They are often critically acclaimed without commensurate commercial success; it would be great if this particular set of songs went some way towards addressing this!
There were many highlights! They kicked off with a wall of sound approach on Toy Head, while other highlights included the slow, moody Pride Before A Fall, a slamming Vanishing Man, Globe Spinning’s dark Lou Reed type delivery with an outstanding drumming performance (described by Kilbey as “a dose of prog rock”), and Let Us Go whipped the crowd into a frenzy. The endearing Old Coast Road lived up to Kilbey’s description of being an archetypal Church song and the three twelve string guitars played for the performance certainly helped achieve that! While the great new track and tribute to the hippy dream, Laurel Canyon, had a thumping sound with twelve strings ringing out once again. The final song performed from the album provided an impressive finish to the main set. Miami had a killer groove with a Who type anthem feel. It wasn’t an issue but, the expected big songs from the back catalogue didn’t appear and ironically the only look back came in the form of an encore performance of Don’t Look Back (from 1982’s Blurred Crusade album).
Overall there were great vocals and stage presence from Kilbey, superb musicianship from Koppes, Powels and Haug, and high quality songs that drew from the Church’s legacy while firmly placing the band in the present. It was great to be there!
Darren Parker
The songs themselves are terrific and the audience response wasn’t surprising. The Church have always been sonically interesting; a band that has been prepared to push their layered textured sound rather than succumb to “easy” less interesting mainstream expectation. They are often critically acclaimed without commensurate commercial success; it would be great if this particular set of songs went some way towards addressing this!
There were many highlights! They kicked off with a wall of sound approach on Toy Head, while other highlights included the slow, moody Pride Before A Fall, a slamming Vanishing Man, Globe Spinning’s dark Lou Reed type delivery with an outstanding drumming performance (described by Kilbey as “a dose of prog rock”), and Let Us Go whipped the crowd into a frenzy. The endearing Old Coast Road lived up to Kilbey’s description of being an archetypal Church song and the three twelve string guitars played for the performance certainly helped achieve that! While the great new track and tribute to the hippy dream, Laurel Canyon, had a thumping sound with twelve strings ringing out once again. The final song performed from the album provided an impressive finish to the main set. Miami had a killer groove with a Who type anthem feel. It wasn’t an issue but, the expected big songs from the back catalogue didn’t appear and ironically the only look back came in the form of an encore performance of Don’t Look Back (from 1982’s Blurred Crusade album).
Overall there were great vocals and stage presence from Kilbey, superb musicianship from Koppes, Powels and Haug, and high quality songs that drew from the Church’s legacy while firmly placing the band in the present. It was great to be there!
Darren Parker