A page about the Live Album is available, with set list and suggested album names The Melbourne concert reviews are here too, with pictures.

Photo and montage by Matt

October 17th : The Metro

It was amazing. Blackeyed Susans were great, and played with that fierce intensity of playing in front of someone elses crowd. (even picked up an ashtray at the end: rock'n'roll???). And the version of Smokin' Johnny Cash was very very menacing. The thought crossed my mind that this was aussie pub rock gone right.

The Church. Once again (this was my second time) seeing the church play live is an inspiring journey. It's unlike any other band that i know. I mean they rock, but the way that the intensity builds up beats the hell out of any of these other bands that hide behind a veil of large video screens and corporate promotion. It's just four ordinary guys up there enjoying every second of what they do, and it shows.

The set list has already been stated, but the versions of an interlude, day of the dead, and the *fantastic* version of roman were the highlights for me. Also worthy a mention were constant in opal, since it sounded really bizarre to me...

All in all, what a way to celebrate my 22nd birthday!!!

brom

ps and when peter grabbed the rick off marty, the lead was making a lot of buzzing, hence peter's comment, but then peter just played over the top of it, and i couldn't hear it any more...just waves of sound...

After having a few beers at a Paddington pub, we arrived by cab at The Metro at around 10 and in time to catch about half of a very uninspiring set by The Black Eyed Susans. Not even "Smoking Johnny Cash", their JJJ hit and tribute to the man in black, which they closed with, sounded that good.

By just after 11 the place is packed, having sold out long before. Enter .... The Church (for those going to the Melbourne show and / or the other Sydney shows ..... if you don't want to know about the set, exit your e-mail now. For the benefit of all the o.s. seancers ....) They began with Columbus and followed it quickly with Comedown. Steve quickly informed us that the show was being recorded and would be available for $30 (Australian) soon. He in fact made numerous references to the recording throughout the night, twice asking if it was time to turn the tape over yet and filling in time with spoken verses of The Kinks' "20th Century Man" or possibly King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" and The George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag".

I can't remember the whole set list, but it included lots off Starfish - Destination (Steve forgot the words at the beginning and told us so, as he improvised in time with the music), Under The Milky Way (with Marty playing acoustic), North South East and West, Reptile (the crowd favourite - Steve commenting that he thought it was the one everyone was screaming for) and Hotel Womb. Other songs included Constant in Opal, An Interlude (one of the highlights), Ripple and Almost With You (another crowd favourite, as this had been a hit originally in Australia and still gets a lot of airplay on commercial radio here).

The definite high point for me was the last and 2nd encore, of Tantalized and ..... for all those on the list who have been speculating what the lost song would be ..... an extended Is This Where You Live. The whole set lasted around 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Having seen The Church on numerous occasions, going back to the early shows in 1981, this was probably the best I've seen. Marty looked like he was really enjoying himself, twanging all the old tunes. Why they would even contemplate breaking up, when they are still that good ???

At the end of the show, Steve invited us all back in 2 weeks time, to hear as he put it "Side 2 of the album being recorded", as the 2nd Metro show on 31 October is also being recorded. The best of these 2 shows, will be the live album. For those in Sydney or who can get to Sydney .... This show is a must. There are still tickets available, but not for long, once word gets out.

The following morning, I proudly wore my newly acquired Church tour t-shirt, as I pushed my shopping trolley around the local supermarket. A guy who worked there and who was packing fruit and veges, asked me if they were still around. I told him that I had seen them the previous night and that they are playing again in 2 weeks time. He recalled how he used to see them a lot, 10 - 15 years ago ..... now he'll be there on the 31st also !

Vincent

What can I say? To me this was THE MOST BRILLIANT NITE OF MY LIFE!!! Maybe it was the emotion or not having seen them for what seems a lifetime but I am still on cloud 9 and my heads still spinning!!

The Metro was dark and ominous and there was a tension and vibe in the air like I've never felt before. The calm before the storm that was 'The Church'. Talk about In a Heartbeat, mine was thumpin' like never before! Steve jokingly prompted the audience to ''make it sound like you're having a great time for the recording - even if its not sincere!" As if we needed encouragement!!!

Columbus was a good starter to the show but before you knew it the boys were in full swing. Obviously enjoying themselves immensely.I can't believe they played for 2 and a half hours and the only break was the changing over of the tapes.

I managed a position almost right at the front between Peter (in red paisley shirt and white jeans) and Steve (in long sleeved blue silk/satin shirt) desperately caught between trying to watch the show and get some camera shots off at the same time. Marty was in black (unfortunately to my far right) playing his Rickenbacker and acoustic guitars and boy did he SIZZLE - how he didn't break every string on his guitars I'll never know. They are amazing guitarists and I cant wait till that live album comes out. SK had a Fender VI and I thought those guys were yelling out 'Go back to Bay 6! OR basics? Tim's drumming was superb as usual and there were some magical haunting moments between him and PK [who I noticed played a red/white Rick]. Please stay with the Church Tim!!! He really fits in well as the 4th member. He has a real feel for their music. And I got a buzz out of seeing PKs E-Bow in action up real close.

Of course there were a few errors but when SK forgot the lyrics to Destination and the guys all cracked up laughing, thats the sort of stuff they should keep on the album. Its spontaneous and adds to the fun of it. He didnt even stop, he just sang ''I think Ive forgotten the words'' and kept right on going. Steve did a little impromptu song between tapes which I cant for the life of me recall the name of - any ideas guys? Highlights for me were 'Ripple' and 'Tantalised' which were bristling and all those songs I'd never heard before 'Dome', Grind (I thought they were singing 21st Century [Schizoid Man ?]) and Marty singing in Two Places at Once was a real bonus.

Most loudly requested song was Reptile and someone desperately wanted Priest and Witch hunt. Songs surprisingly not played were Metropolis, Shadow Cabinet & Tristesse, but hey - we had a Feast to enjoy anyway. I think I dreamt they played 'Loveblind', 'When You Were Mine', Secret Corner but I'm sure there was another song from MatS. Steve sang with emotion and he was in fine form all night. At one stage he said they were going to go way back in the past and play an old song from their very 1st album. The crowd went 'OOOooooh' - probably expecting to hear Unguarded Moment but somehow I knew it would be 'She Never Said'.

After 2 very generous encores, Steve said 'Thank you all for coming - I hope you did!' and we very reluctantly left and then retired to the bar.

All was not LOST, out came Marty who sat up there with a few beers and smoking rollies. After chatting to him for a while I introduced him to Laureen who had travelled over from S.Africa. He was most impressed to meet such a dedicated fan and was very attentive and generous with his time after what must have been one high of a night.My little intrastate flight from Dubbo paled in comparison and he gave me a real ribbing about coming from 'the sticks' [outback]. :-)

I remember him mentioning his family were on holiday in Spain and his little girl is now walking. He said his next project on return to England was to work with a Swedish guy whose name I cant recall and told me how he can speak that language. He then started talking in Swedish and i couldnt understand a word he said of course. They have absolutely nothing ready for the new Church album yet and when I asked him if he was happy with how the concert went as far as the recordings concerned he was quite pleased but there were obviously a few mistakes to be rectified [patched up hey Brian!].The rest is a blur, he posed for photos and was just very polite and approachable - and he still looks so young too !! "

Tim and Margot Smith were standing together and obligingly posed for photos too. She is one lovely lady and as she left she came and gave me a hug goodbye as she went past and said 'see you later take care, you're a sister'!!! Blew me away ! as I am a great fan of hers.

Hello to Laureen & Tom, matt, David, Trevor and Morten. Enjoy Melbourne - Friday was very special because of the recording but the next shows will sure be a treat.

This is a reference to something further down the page...
Sarah - your brother didnt piss Steve off as far as I could see but he may have been a bit annoyed at them making these loud noises and he joked 'would you like to hear yourself making this **'grunting noise**' over the top of the album? Apart from that i loved seeing those guys having such a great time despite nearly knocking us all over with their enthusiasm - nobody could begrudge them that!

SAD NEWS: My luggage went on a separate holiday without me along with all the tshirts I bought! Hopefully it will turn up tomorrow. Dont panic yet guys!

GOOD NEWS: Trevors CDs/NSEW fanzine seemed to be selling fast - more promotion!! I also converted a friend who took my spare ticket.

Cheers everyone, I'm tired, exhausted but very happy!!

Sue xxx

David Rundle

It's the morning after,leaving the venue at 2.30 am driving to Newcastle i didn't get home until after 4.30 am at which time the sun had risen. Its now 10.30 and i have managed about 2 hours sleep.

The concert?

• Sold OUT !! There were several scalpers trying to selling tickets at the door.
• Marty was first sighted between 9.30 and 10.30 in the crowd watching the Black Eyed Susans like a Seance person watching the church!
• Oddest thing on sale - Black Eyed Susans ashtray.
• Other things you could buy- NSEW mag & cd $10 and t-shirts for $25 which were grey with tour dates and names of guys in the band on the back.a guitar and "The Church" in very subtle orange writing on the front. (since they were not black i picked one up)
• A little after 11pm and the tension was mounting,the lights went out and 5.28 was playing over the load speaker (minus the vocals!) The guys walked on and commenced a well over 2hr set if you include the two standard encores.

I don't know why but i felt the show started of a bit slower than last year,when i say slower i mean laid back a bit mellower.there were a lot of surprises in the set. if your going to melb and you don't want to know don't read on.

Surprises included- "In A Heartbeat !!!" (hate the song but it wasn't too bad live) Dome (apparently the first time live), Two Places At Once (which was great although Marty said SK's timing was out on a verse after the show) and a few others. They didn't play Metropolis or p=a.

The show was fantastic, had a great time and i think they will only get better as the tour goes on.

Spoke to Marty after the show, he was very polite and spent a fair amount of time talking to us after the show. A true gentleman. SK has not sold the studio, Tim will continue to run that. I asked Marty about the solo album,and as Brian mentioned he can't find the guy who is producing it. Weird!!!

Mat The Detective we have a job for you- Solve the case of the missing guy who has Marty's album?

Julien Klettenberg

Had an awesome time at the Metro gig last Friday - the playing was a little loose (a few mistakes, most noticeably in "Two Places At Once", where Steve just lost time completely & "Destination" where he forgot the first line), but the sound was enormous and the vibe from the audience was just FANTASTIC! It was the triumphal return that last year's tour should have been.

• Sold LOTS of T-shirts (Marc from RCP is getting more printed).
• Steve promised that the live album will be out "in a month or so" (but, again, don't hold your breath).
• There is probably going to be a gig in Brisbane now as well (Nov 15-16?)

Hope you have a great time at The Palace - look forward to lots of great oldies "Columbus", "Bel Air", "In A Heartbeat", "Almost With You" + rare tracks "The Dome" (played live for the first time ever last Friday), "Two Places At Once".

Matt Curley

last night was truly one of the most amazing nights of my life! at the metro, with the four most gifted and talented musicians in front of me & a cast (literally) of thousands. where you there? i was standing about three or four people back on the right hand side facing the stage right in front of mwp. throughout the concert, he made eye contact with me constantly. "me my cats tail" (who was with me) also made eye contact, but she only made it twice. mine was constant (probably about 40% of the concert) only one thing shitted me about last night, nothing to do with the band, but there was a "harlot" (i use that term loosely) in 2 people in front of me who made it to the front and touched mwp leg and only really got into "under the milky way". "mmct" & my girlfriend vanessa thought the same of this girl too.

this now makes it twice i've seen the church ... the first time i saw them was a year ago for the "magician among the spirits" tour. that time i got rather drunk before seeing them & i only remember tiny bits of the show. for last nights show, i did have one or two drinks, plus some mysterious smoke wafted my way (if you know what i mean) which seemed to enhance last night incredibly.

the best songs from last night: "columbus"; "under the milky way"; "destination"; "reptile"; "ripple" (my all time favourite song ever :-) ) & "little green bag". i realise the last one isn't a church song, but steve sung it & played it - i'm happy!!

well, i must go. thanking you for reading my Colossus (this is the most i've typed ever, probably because i'm hyped)

Nathan

I have only one thing to say: Columbus and Constant In Opal.

*sigh*

Any one else going to go to the 31st show?

(or even the one after that ....god, i am so poor....)

Sarah (who is too young to get into licensed venues and couldn't go to the concert)

Well.....I myself didn't go, but some friends did, and I must say, that Steve Kilbey officially got pissed off at my brother and his friend....

My brother Daniel and his friend Damien kept on yelling out to Steve 'Go the Bass VI', as they were right in front of him and Damien's got one, you see, and he kept on telling them to shut up or they'd ruin the recording. Damien kept on yelling out for P=A, which they were disappointed at not hearing, and Steve was like 'priest? what's priest?', sorta feigning ignorance, I guess. I think he was having a bad day. Peter-John, my other brother, told me that they were better the last time they saw them at Selina's....

October 30th : Argyle St. Hotel

Marty smiled at us. That was a good thing. We liked it when Marty Smiled at us. Yes. We think it was good. Columbus was a good way to begin - as we have heard before, but what the hell. Its a good song, and Marty smiled at us anyway so we don't care.

The crowd were ok - they were a diverse bunch. Even though your typical hardcore Church fan thinks of your average Church fan as being that elusive person exactly like one's self, the Church have, in reality, managed to attract a wide variety of followers. We saw westies and goths alike, all singing to lyric lines like "Our documents are useless - all forged beyond believing", and so on and so forth . . . the music of the Church conveys the beauty of chaos and emotion, and these are univerals. They were in form: it was classic Church - the pub environment, with tens listening in the foreground, and tens more not giving a fuck in the background. This did not deter them. They put out spiritually, intellectually, and socially - it was all too much and not enough at the same time. We are both VERY happy campers. And Kilbey looked WICKED.

Grind sounded great.

Karma County were good. They fit well into the three dimensional environment of the pub because they too were three dimensional beings. I noticed a couple of times that they played songs I'd heard on JJJ or something. We didn't see "Love Me" because we were too late.

October 31st : The Metro

The first Metro gig left me hungry for more, I had some holidays up my sleeve, so I thought why not see them again?

I've been fairly lucky in that I've managed to catch ALL the gigs on this tour (I live in Sydney) so it was an interesting experience to make the trip to the southern capital & hear them there. I think The Palace is a great venue (it reminds me very much of Selinas) & up until last night, it would have been the pick of the gigs.

The final Metro gig put paid to that - it was, in a word, brilliant! The light show was fantastic, apart from the feed on 'Destination' the sound was pretty close to perfect, & the guys played for close to 3 hours. It's great to see these guys can & do play so well for so long; one of their contemporaries I saw at the Enmore about a year ago started well but started to sound ragged about 2/3 into the set.... but not The Church.

Steve said that he was enjoying the gig & that it was one of the best; I'd have to agree. The final, final encore was a surprize, just when we thought it was all over we were treated to "Is This Where You Live" which I reckon is one of their best songs (brings back memories of a great night at Selinas years ago when they added the vocorder to the song's mix & just blew me away).

The Parramatta gig would have been great if the front-of-house bins didn't sound so muddy, & if the mixer had given Marty's guitar some more level (especially during 'Tantalized'). The man was playing hard & fast, we just couldn't hear it....

Here's looking forward to the live album & the vision...

Andrew Walker

The Church played their last show ("for a very long time") in Sydney last night at the Metro. Again, pretty much a full house for this large venue. The whole hight had an air of similarity to the gig two Fridays before at the same place. The guys even had the same clothes on. The set was the same but a bit shorter at two hours compared to the two and a half hours last time.

The set opened with Columbus which was great followed by Comedown. Then one of the highlights for me which was An Interlude. I couldn't help but notice how much louder Steve's bass was on that song. Throbbing, low and positively trance inducing. It reminded me of that great story of the Church at the Marquee Club in the early 80's where Steve's bass was so loud, the audience staggered out dazed and confused. A few songs into the set they performed Almost With You. At the end of the song the audience went beserk and let loose a huge roar of appreciation that did not stop. I don't think I have ever heard such loud applause from an audience ever at any gig. Steve appeared to be quite moved by this.

Steve comments for the night included telling us how he wrote Bel Air whilst living in Canberra and "imagining what Sydney was like". Before the song Roman he mentioned something about his old school motto (in Latin I think). He later thanked the audience "for sharing this special night with us." Steve also said how much they were enjoying the show tonight and how he thought it was the best Church gig and best audience at any Church gig EVER!

Steve mentioned how the gig was being filmed for "an MTV special for the year 2000". There were two cameramen and a sound guy on stage for the whole gig and another camera up the back with the mixing desk. So there will be a video available of this gig sometime in the future.

It should be mentioned how brilliantly Tim Powles played. His kit sounded fantastic.

Highlights for me included :

• An Interlude (Steve's bass was amazing!)
• Tantalized (pure energy, deep space jammin')
• Grind (awesome playing by Marty)
• Myrhh (the ultimate road song)

All in all, a fantastic night for the guys to end on and remember.

Oh yeah, the last song performed was Is This Where You Live?, a song they often finished with back in 1980/81/82.

Return to Reviews Index