NRC Handelsblad - 6th April 1988

(translated using Google Translate)

 

Static performance by The Church

 

It just won't go smoothly with the international breakthrough for the Australian pop group The Church, good for high chart positions in their own country since 1981.

It's not down to the music because the LPs of the foursome from Sydney contain nice melodic pop songs with a slight lean towards the psychedelic music from Sixties. The traditional rock line-up with emphasis on the flowing interplay of the electric guitars and the shrouded vocals by bassist Steve Kilbey, the contemporary sound of the recent album Starfish doesn't get in the way. Whoever knew The Church only from the record came in for some unpleasant surprises in the concert hall, however.

 

Of the four group members, only guitarist Marty Willson-Piper was somewhat mobile. The performance in Paradiso was eventually too boring and too static to fascinate for the full two hours, partly because of little variety in their repertoire. Moreover it seemed as if the small appearance had to be compensated with increasing noise volume, which ultimately saw a part of the audience flee from the hall. Even subtle elements such as the acoustic guitar in Under The Milky Way and the swelling violin tones during Destination got lost in a messy sound slurry.

 

Lyrics were barely understandable and the closing, old-fashioned guitar duel mainly delivered echoing and screeching noise. Perhaps The Church struggled with the acoustics of the former church where the performance took place, but the predicate 'promising' could still be never be shaken off.