30th Anniversary Acoustic

City Winery - NYC

Thursday, April 22, 2010

 

It's hard to believe that The Church has been at it for three decades.  It seems like only yesterday that they went from being a very good rock and roll band to being a standard-bearer of progessive rock.  Over the course of 23+ albums, the band has never wavered from the unapologetic amalgam of its influences - The Beatles, The Byrds, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, U2 et al - channeled through its unique creative energy.  Using the uniquely solid foundation of Steve Kilbey's brilliant rock-poet lyrics, the band builds multi-layered, heavily-textured, atmospheric arrangements that run the gamut from the straight-gorgeous, to the trippy-opiated, to the aggressive-angry.

 

On two albums - El Momento Descuidado and El Momento Siguiente - the band offered stripped-down, "unplugged" version of many of its songs (plus a few new ones).

 

Using that idea as a jumping off point - and wanting to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a series of shows less frenetic than those on their regular tours - the band has undertaken an acoustic tour of  "intimate spaces."  And it is a true treat to see them in this fashion: loose, playful, truly having fun with both the material and the audience.

 

The band played one song per album, working backward from their most recent, Untitled #23.  Some songs were predictable, but many were not.  And some - particularly Invisible, My Little Problem, Mistress, 10,000 Miles Away, and Almost With You - really packed an emotional punch.  In all cases, the stripped down versions allowed both the brilliance of Steve Kilbey's lyrics and the brillance of the songwriting and arrangement to shine in a way that can be overpowered (though mostly appropriately and happily so!) by the multi-layered electric versions.

 

The set list (in order) was: Pangaea (Untitled #23), Space Needle (Uninvited Like the Clouds), Reptile (El Momento Siguiente), Ionian Bliss (Back with Two Beasts), El Momento Descuidado (title track), Appalatia (Forget Yourself), Invisible (After Everything Now This), Louisiana (Hologram of Baal), Comedown (Magician Among the Spirits), My Little Problem (Sometime Anywhere), Mistress (Priest=Aura), Metropolis (Gold Afternoon Fix), Under the Milky Way (Starfish), Already Yesterday (Heyday), 10,000 Miles Away (Remote Luxury), Fly (Seance), Almost With You (Blurred Crusade), and Tear It All Away (Of Skins and Heart).  They followed this with three encores: a fabulous cover of Smashing Pumpkins' The Killer In Me, a gripping version of Space Saviour (Untitled #23), and a heartfelt version of Grind (Gold Afternoon Fix).

 

As noted, the band was loose and playful, with lots of banter.  As well, they made use of lots of "references" - both lyrical and musical - to other bands and songs, including The Beatles (musically, Willson-Piper's subtle inclusion of the melody from Here Comes the Sun in one song; lyrically, Kilbey's tongue-in-cheek reference to You Know My Name in another) and Aerosmith (Kilbey's lift of lyrics from Dream On).  Of course, the "jig was up" when the intermission music turned out to be Side 1 of Abbey Road.

 

Based on their work from Priest=Aura forward, The Church has more than earned their place in the pantheon of great progressive bands.  They have nothing to prove to anyone.  They could pack it up and rest on their laurels, and we would be satisfied.  (Though THEY might not be!)  Instead, they follow a major tour for their latest album with this wonderful, "personal" acoustic tour to celebrate their anniversary.  That's real class.

 

And so I say: Steve, Marty, Peter, Tim - Happy Anniversary, and enjoy yourselves!  And thank you - sincerely - for the years of listening pleasure you have given to so many.

 

Peace.

 

Whatever happened to that review of "Uninvited like the clouds" anyway?

 

So despite my absence, I have been VERY busy in the prog world, including for PA.

 

Peace.

 

As one who has followed the Church's...progression from good rock band to progressive standard-bearer, I would say that the MBs were among the very first influences that helped "change" their sound.  Listen to Seance (which is a sort of one-off album - the albums before it were not prog at all, and the album after it was not either).  There is a subtle MB "flavor" that seeps into the overall sound.  And with Heyday, it really starts to be more noticeable (along with some Byrds and Floyd touches).  I will admit that, by Starfish, the influences of Floyd and others had taken precedence over the MB influence, though I believe it has always remained present.  And in my opinion, the opening of Priest=Aura (and some of the influence on the album as a whole) is about as MB as it gets.  LOL.  Peace.