The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

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Newsletter 28th Feb 2011

http://www.thebackstagebeat.com/2011/02/the-church-future-past-perfect/

By Ange Alex – Feb 24, 2011 – THE BACKSTAGE BEAT (with photos)

When “the church” planned their US tour, they did it with amazing verve. It was an impressive feat to say the least as they were set to play three albums in their entirety in one night! The ‘Future Past Perfect’ tour was almost unbelievable as they would be covering each decades of the band’s career. Most groups, even young ones would never try to take on performing 34 songs in one night. Three amazing hours of music played to a packed house in the heart of trendy Little Five Points. the church pleased their fans in a way that only these Australian boys could do.

Steve Kilbey started the night off by welcoming his fans and opening up the first album of the evening “Untitled #23?. This album was by far their most progressive. All ten of the albums songs were performed during the first act. With the crowd at their mercy for more, the church paused for a quick ten minute break.

Coming back to the stage, it was time to take a trip back to that wonderful year, 1992. “Priest=Aura” was their seventh release and featured fourteen songs for your listening pleasure. However Tuesday night, it was only for the fortunate ones at The Variety Playhouse.

Finally, they made it to the breakthrough album from 1988 “Starfish”. This album was one of their most successful as it featured the popular song “Under the Milky Way” which is still heard on Atlanta radio to date. You could hear the crowd sing along as the chorus came in. I couldn’t help but sing along myself. When the full ten songs on the album were performed, everyone could feel that they had witnessed a great night in music and music history.

All in all, “the church” remains a solid, tight-knit band that will hopefully make their way back to the states and to the great city of Atlanta.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/3786758-421/fans-worship-church-through-three-album-show.html
Fans worship Church through three-album show – 11th Feb 2011
BY JEFF ELBEL

Four months ago, veteran psychedelic pop-rockers the Church were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame. Beloved by fans as the band’s brooding beat poet, frontman Steve Kilbey seemed unusually gleeful at the time. Following a stream of wisecracks and unrehearsed anecdotes which left the crowd in stitches, guitarist Marty Willson-Piper deadpanned, “We’ve worked so hard to be aloof and enigmatic — all ruined in 15 minutes, after 30 years.” “Aloof no more,” interjected Kilbey, making an oath repeated endlessly on YouTube.

At Park West on Friday night, however, the Church were back in character and rebuilding their aura of mystery. The band thrilled ardent followers by weaving musical spells full of grand gestures, menacing atmosphere and stratospheric radiance. Though Kilbey was quick to thank his enthusiastic audience, nary a yarn was spun outside of the cinematic lyrics to tone poems like “Anchorage” and “Swan Lake.”

That suited the packed house just fine. People came to hear Church music, and they got plenty. Though the band has earned respect for keeping nostalgia at arm’s length, their “Future Past Perfect” tour used it to advantage. In order to expose the maximum number of listeners to a complete performance of 2009’s critically lauded “Untitled No. 23,” the group also enticed fair-weather fans with a full-album presentation of their 1988 commercial breakthrough “Starfish,” featuring radio hits “Under the Milky Way” and “Reptile.”

But the band’s true love gift to acolytes was the inclusion of 1992’s “Priest=Aura.” The album presented the Church at its most inscrutable and aloof, and was never toured in America. Find a clutch of devotees who have worshipped the Church steadfastly since “Under the Milky Way” first shimmered across the airwaves, and “Priest” will likely sit atop their collective list of favorites.

The band’s point, naturally, was that its newest material stacks up favorably to these classics. It was hard to argue. Guitarist Peter Koppes’ elegant figures intertwined with Willson-Piper’s deep twang during “Deadman’s Hand,” as foreboding a portrait of oppression as any found on “Priest=Aura.” The rarely played “On Angel Street” found the group stretching into new avenues of sound. Undulating like a half-remembered dream of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine,” the song’s synthesizer pulse suggested the unsettling intrusion of a distant car alarm. Kilbey’s audio-film noir played about the emotionally raw edges of an unraveled relationship. “You should change the message on your machine,” he intoned. “Makes me cry when you say we’re not at home.”

The band’s resident producer and drummer Tim Powles anchored the show superbly – notably so, since two thirds of the material predated his tenure with the band. “Priest=Aura” was the band’s final album before Powles’ involvement, and he tackled songs including the shadowy “Ripple” and lushly chiming “Feel” as if they were part of his DNA. The taut “Lustre” was a showcase for Powles’ powerful and creative percussion, and the black humor of “Witch Hunt” was underscored by his cabaret flourishes.

After a brief intermission and change of clothes, the band returned with “Starfish.” Though anchored by its two hit singles, the complete package exposed the depth and quality of an enduring pop collection. The spooky “Blood Money” began with the interdependent guitar arrangements that have rendered Koppes and Willson-Piper equally indispensible to the Church sound. During deep cuts like “Hotel Womb” and Koppes’ own “A New Season,” Koppes often performed beautifully arpeggiated melodies with great finessse, while Willson-Piper’s right hand became an unfettered blur. The hard-charging gallop of Willson-Piper’s “Spark” was reminiscent of anthemic 80’s rockers The Alarm.

The night’s warmest response was reserved, of course, for the jangly “Under the Milky Way,” which Willson-Piper performed on a battered acoustic guitar that looked like it might have traveled every mile with the song over its 23 year lifetime. But the rarities made the night special, despite Kilbey’s admission of having flubbed “Starfish” chestnut “Antenna.” “We’ll make it up with this one,” promised Willson-Piper, grinning as he launched another song.

Jeff Elbel is a local freelance writer.

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“I’ve seen Pink Floyd, I’ve seen the Stones, the Who, The Cure, REM,
Midnight Oil, the Waterboys – this is the best concert I’ve ever seen
in my life. And where are these bands now? who is standing on top of
the scrap heap mountain of smashed guitars with a sold out show packed
to the gills in Chicago? I saw beautiful maidens. Raven haired girls
who reminded me of her. These are the great minstrels from royal
courts, these are the troubadours of emperors, queens, and heros.
An intoxicating pleasure of music and memories, of possibility, and
dreams. I admire the Church for their high bar of quality and
integrity. from a distance I saw them as graying haired men, yet with
the faces of 20 year olds. some sort of resurrection had taken place.
Some fountain of youth that great passion, intensity and soul music
creates. it was all unrivaled. Ah, the variety of sound, from cosmic
space jazz of the future to a punk rock band in the 70s. the heartfelt
cathartic belting joy of ‘anchorage” that had tears streaming down my
face. The whole entourage playing for keeps. I stood up, cheered, and
saluted you. and so from the deep deep bottom of my heart, I say,
thank you, thank you, good sirs.”
– Abid

http://brooklynrocks.blogspot.com/2011/02/church-live-photos-from-future-past.html

Click link above to view their photos

This past Thursday, the church brought their “Future Past Perfect” tour to a full house at B.B. King’s in Times Square. The concept of the evening was that the band would play the following albums in their entirety: Untitled #23 (2009), Priest=Aura (1992), and Starfish (1988). Over the last few years, some indie and alt-rock bands have played one of their classic albums from start to finish, this is the first time that I’ve heard of any band taking this concept to such a grand scale.

The concert was nothing short of impressive. As the band took the stage, Steve Kilbey came to the mic and said “We are called The [pause] Crouch and we are going to give you Untitled #23”. There was a minimal amount of stage banter after this as the music and the art (projected on the screens) did all of the talking needed. This first set was stellar so it is hard to pick out a individual song or two but “Anchorage” was particularly stunning as the band added a backing vocalist (Tour Manager Tiare Helberg) and an additional guitarist to create a haunting and memorable soundscape.

After a twenty minute intermission, the band returned for Priest = Aura and gave a shout-out to Jay Dee Daugherty who was in the audience (Jay Dee played drums on Priest = Aura and toured with the church for a few years). While I don’t think I gave this album the time of day when it originally came out, the band’s live performance made me realize that I have been missing something. Particularly stellar was “The Disillusionist” where Steve Kilbey became more animated than I’ve seen once he put his guitar down. The other track of note was “Film” where this melancholy instrumental seemed to perfectly ramp-down the second set.

As the band went off for the second intermission, I could hear Marty saying something about needing to rest his hands and that made me really pay attention to the amount of energy and precision that went into this 3+ hour show. On the audience side, not everyone was able to appropriately pace themselves. One “nice” young man staggered right into me after the second set and I watched as his date was trying to help him get his arms into his jacket sleeves as he was having no luck on his own.

For the last set, the band played Starfish from start to finish and the album has aged well. While I’ve heard “Under The Milky Way” way to many times, the overall album doesn’t have that “big” (aka dated) 80’s sound that many bands were utilizing at that time. Songs like “Destination” and “Hotel Womb” sound just as vital today as they did when originally released.

Someone sitting on the floor obviously brought a pocket camera into the show and filmed the last song of the night – “Hotel Womb”. My post-show thoughts are that an official live album/DVD from this tour is really needed as this was a show not to be missed. – From Brooklyn Rocks

http://ghostrider42.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/the-church-b-b-kings-nyc-wish-i-knew-what-you-were-looking-for/

“Textures. Beyond the brilliant songwriting, it’s the sonic textures that make the church my favorite band on the planet. You can tell how much attention they pay to getting the right sound for every song. A dazzling blend of guitar tones from Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper, astute drumming by Tim Powles and sharp bass playing from Steve Kilbey waxes and wanes from melodic to dissonant to ethereal and back again; it’s stunning ensemble work that frames Kilbey’s distinctive baritone voice as he intones a rush of imaginative lyrics that wander from wry to surreal: the church sound like no other band, and create a memorable flow of music that resonates deep in my brain.

Thirty years on, the Australian band (though as Marty will tell you, there’s only one Aussie in the group) is still reaching new peaks of recording and performance. They are at their best on their current Future Past Perfect tour, which crossed the U.S. this month and came to New York for two nights. As on their previous Intimate Space tour, the show marches deliberately backwards through time, this year with performances of three full albums: Untitled #23, their latest neo-psych gem; Priest=Aura, a masteripiece of surrealism from 1992 with dark currents running through it; and Starfish from 1988, one of their most accessible and melodic albums, which catapulted them out of Australia and put them onto the world pop charts with the single Under The Milky Way.

the church gave their enthusiastic New York fans three full hours of music in a nearly four-hour evening, with two short intermissions. It’s a fascinating way to stage a show: if you’re a serious fan, you walk into the evening knowing exactly what the setlist will be; there are no surprises there, though you know you’re going to hear songs that the band has never performed in concert. Everything hinges on the performance itself, and they brought it off spectacularly.

Steve, Peter, Marty and keyboardist Craig Wilson are all multi-instrumentalists; the stage manager and another hand were constantly handing off Rickenbackers, Fenders, other guitars, basses and a mandolin, sometimes in mid-song so that someone could add the right texture at the necessary moment. On Anchorage, towards the end of the first set, both Peter and stage manager Wes Gregorace played bass, with the other three on guitars, each playing a distinctive part to build a huge work of sonic architecture, with “the divine Tiare Helberg,” per Steve’s introduction, adding a whispery female voice to the complex textures for just that one song. She is also the band’s tour manager; The Church is an ongoing effort where everyone plays multiple roles.

Marty handles the bass on a number of the songs, with Steve either playing guitar or simply declaiming the songs and working the stage. He’s developed a unique style of gesture, maybe a blend of modern dance and what seem to be a sorcerer’s incantatory passes, that paints an appropriate mood for the lyrics when he works the stage. As front man, he also delivered bits of amusing patter (“The strength of your New York charisma has made my instrument go out of tune!”) in between songs.

There were new approaches to many of the songs. From Starfish, Peter played a softer version of the burn-into-your-brain riff that underpins Destination. Milky Way was more driving and authoritative than the recorded version, Reptile hissed and slithered, propelled by Marty’s sparkling high-note arpeggios on a black Rickenbacker. Hotel Womb was made heavy and dramatic, reimagined to be a great show closer with passionate vocals from Steve.

Peter’s fluid, intelligent playing shone all night, but seemed particularly to come to the fore in the Starfish set. Tim Powles’ drumming was wonderfully crisp, a model of playing to enhance every song. As on their last tour, Craig Wilson filled out the sound on keys, guitar and occasional percussion.

There were so many highlights, I’ll never get them all. Steve’s dramatic front-man intepretation of The Disullusionist, from Priest=Aura, gave the song a new edge that was sharpened by the ferocity of the band. Ripple, a fan favorite, was sublime, with Marty giving the crowd a wicked dose of lead guitar. Chaos is a ten-minute epic that shows that the church can do art/damage/noise with the best of them; the live version was intense, with Steve acting out the song, crouching, stumbling and covering his ears as if the sounds of dissonant feedback were driving him mad during the instrumental sections..

A note for musicians: the entire Priest=Aura album performance on this tour featured a six-string bass that looked like a customized purple Fender Broadcaster. Steve played it using a pick, occasionally wandering into the high notes to get distinctive tones for certain passages. He handed this special instrument off to Craig Wilson for The Disillusionist and a couple of other songs.

These were epic performances of deeply rich music, inspiringly conceived and executed by a band and a crew with a rare sense of focus. For my money, we won’t see anything better until the next time the church returns to our shores.” – by Anton Tibbe

http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews39_06/page27.cfm

The Church shimmer in historic performance
by Jessica Price – SGN A&E Writer

“Adjectives are plentiful when it comes to Australian band The Church, yet a tidy summation is elusive. Over the years, they’ve seemed a bit like sculptors shaping the evolving landscape of their sound. ‘Neo-psychedelic’ and ‘progressive’ don’t completely jibe with vocalist Steve Kilbey’s free-association lyrics paired with the cascading interplay of sometimes up to four guitars (courtesy of Marty Willson-Piper, Peter Koppes, and touring protégé Craig Wilson).

The Church is definitely a band heavy on the atmosphere, but just as easily inspire grown men and women to air guitar. I witnessed this myself at The Triple Door last Monday, as The Church presented three essential albums back to back: Untitled #23, Priest=Aura, and Starfish (each marking one decade of their career). To convey the experience is to view it through the lens of the albums, and the albums are mighty.

Diving into a four-hour commitment with any band is questionable, but The Church presented the evening’s selections concisely so that the subterranean Triple Door was a fitting way to sit back and soak it in. Kilbey and company started with 2009’s Untitled #23, crystallizing the album’s undulations without going off the rails into 10-minute jam sessions with hours remaining. ‘Pangaea’ and ‘Happenstance’ shimmered; the band looking a bit older and wiser, but ultra-cool – Kilbey wore what suspiciously appeared to be leather trousers (or perhaps slightly iridescent black jeans).

‘I’m deliberately minimizing my incredible charm so as not to derail the flow of the record,’ he said, leading into ‘Space Savior.’ ‘Anchorage’ was momentarily plagued with sound issues; Marty Willson-Piper’s monstrous pedal board apparently had a faulty Big Muff (purchased in Portland, he was quick to point out).

After a brief intermission (and ‘costume’ changes for all) came Priest=Aura, considered by many to be the crown jewel of the band’s career. ‘Ripple,’ ‘The Disillusionist’ and ‘Kings’ were standouts. The layered ‘Chaos’ deftly moved from raucous into delicate, and back again. Thirty years of playing together has perfectly distilled the connection between the original members, plus longtime drummer Tim Powles. It didn’t feel like a nostalgia tour or an older band cashing in on the accomplishments of the past. The Church never broke up – playing together is what they’ve done, and done expertly, for years.

Though Priest is critically lauded, Starfish remains one of the most flawless albums of all time and was the evening’s high point. Born of the frustration of living in L.A. and relating to an alien environment, Starfish is foreboding, prophetic, shimmering, deep, and desolate – a masterpiece from the ominously gorgeous ‘Destination’ to closer ‘Hotel Womb.’ Seeing Starfish in its entirety was an incredible thrill. ‘Under the Milky Way,’ their biggest hit, is ageless, and through fan favorites ‘Reptile’ and Marty Willson-Piper’s ‘Spark,’ The Church loosed their remaining energy.

Historically, by the time ‘Under the Milky Way’ became a runaway hit, the band already had four albums under the belt – 1988’s acclaimed Starfish was merely a quarter of the way into what currently totals over 20 albums. The Church release records continuously, with never more than a three-year gap in between (which has only happened twice since 1986) plus a healthy dose of extracurricular recording projects. They’ve persevered through label interference, ill-advised producer pairings, personality conflicts, and unbelievable tangles with a bankrupt U.S. distributor. The Church has prevailed and come out on top with Untitled #23 and the winding discography of a career band.

Most tours with pre-packaged, former albums done in entirety seem like a thinly veiled attempt to win back a lost audience; The Church remains light years from being a nostalgia act. Their fans remain dedicated because the band’s sense of self-discovery is still shining and intact.”

http://www.patriotledger.com/entertainment/x449518218/The-Church-fills-the-pews-at-Foxboro-theater#axzz1FRcslJea

the church Fills The Pews at Foxboro Theatre – 18th Feb 2011

Three members of the church visited Wolfgang’s Vault in San Franciso CA to perform 3 songs (Pangaea/Already Yesterday/Swan Lake) on the 4th of February,  just prior to the recent USA Winter Tour.

Click on the link here to watch this footage – http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/the-church/concerts/wolfgangs-vault-february-04-2011.html

http://www.concertphotosmagazine.com/2011/02/church-at-trocadero-2011.html

http://blurt-online.com/features/view/816/

BY ROBERT DEAN LURIE

“It has become fashionable in recent years for bands to hit the road performing “classic” albums in their entirety. Whether it’s Concrete Blonde doing some Bloodletting, the Flaming Lips delivering The Soft Bulletin, Roger Waters re-erecting The Wall or Rush putting up Moving Pictures, artists of all calibers and stripes are joining in the stampede to exhume their past glories for fun and profit, not necessarily in that order. It makes sense on a number of levels. In our current stagnant economy, a run-of-the mill tour may not be viable. Cash-strapped fans are apt to take a pass, rationalizing that they’ll catch ‘em next time when there’s more money in the pocket. To combat this quite understandable frugality, a tour in 2011 must be an event, a “this one can’t be missed!” spectacle. Next, there’s the nostalgia factor. You may not have listened to the band for two decades, but the fact that they’re trotting out your favorite album might be incentive enough to find a babysitter and get out of the house for a rare night on the town. Lastly there’s curiosity: Do the old boys (or girls) still have it? Can they recapture that elusive spark that made you take notice in the first place?

Australian rock band the church is the latest to climb aboard the bandwagon, but typical of these left-of-center underdogs, there is an intriguing twist: they have opted to perform not one, but three albums in their entirety, one for each decade of the band’s existence. Each performance begins with 2009’s Untitled #23 and progresses backward through 1992’s Priest=Aura to conclude with 1988’s Starfish, the album that gave the band a brief taste of international success via the hit single “Under the Milky Way.” (Tour dates can be found here.)

Three full albums in one night. We’re talking a Springsteen-length concert here. To my knowledge the only other band to have attempted something like this was the Cure, who did a series of Trilogy concerts comprising the albums Pornography,Disintegration, and Bloodflowers back in 2002. The key difference is that the Cure is a spectacularly dull live band. The Church, on the other hand, is known for expanding and improving upon its album work, often using the songs as launchpads for inspired flights of improvisation.

The actual three selections for this tour are interesting and quite shrewd. Anyone who was listening to “modern rock” in the late eighties remembers Starfish, so the inclusion of that record was a must. Yet there is nearly unanimous critical (if not commercial) consensus that the band is actually doing its best work right now, as borne out by the many 5-star reviews Untitled #23 received both at home and abroad. It stands to reason that the lapsed fans – the Starfish aficionados making their way back into the fold to rekindle their cherished memories for one night – might enjoy (and perhaps even want to purchase) the new material. Then there is the curious case of Priest=Aura, a space-rock epic that was ignored and/or drubbed at the time of its release but has since grown in stature, possibly due to subsequent albums by other artists (Radiohead’s OK Computer being the primary example) that seemed to tap into its vibe. To include Priest as the middle section – the very core – of the show is a daring move, one that turns what might be a satisfying but unambitious exercise into something really substantial. Nothing less, in fact, than a comprehensive dissertation on the church itself, for it’s impossible to walk away from the concert with anything other than a full picture of what the church is, was, and will be. At that point you can accept or reject based on comprehensive knowledge.

I was in attendance at the February 7 show at the Triple Door in Seattle, during which the band faced the added hurdle of having to perform to a dinner theater with waiters circling the seated audience like flies, cock-blocking the music. Or that was the danger, anyway. the church dispatched this threat by simply ignoring it and focusing all available energy on blowing the roof off the place. And in that endeavor, Priest=Aura proved to be the secret ingredient: a magnificent, dark, intoxicating trip with plenty of surprising twists and turns and lots of danger. Some of the more subtle songs such as “Swan Lake” and “Witch Hunt” had surprising heft and power in the live context, while “Chaos” gave The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” a run for its money in terms of sustained atonal freakout. The other two sets were not quite at this level, but both still had enough moments of transcendence to validate the trilogy concept. Think about it: the battle scene at the center of Lawrence of Arabia would not be nearly so effective without the slow, careful buildup, or the equally crucial denouement.

Of the “men behind the curtain,” Marty Willson-Piper owned the performance. Apart from some equipment challenges during the first set, he was on point from start to finish: stabbing out his guitar lines and driving the rest of the band with constant eye contact and cues. He wore a happy grin that said: I love my job and I’m thrilled to be here. His “Spark” (from Starfish) was one of the highlights of the evening. Drummer Tim Powles, also, never flagged. He absolutely demolished his kit – not in the literal sense of kicking it down and throwing it into the crowd a la Keith Moon – but more in terms of a sustained, unrelenting siege. Think the bombing of Baghdad with eardrums the only casualties. Guitar magician Peter Koppes cycled through a bewildering array of both stringed and non-stringed instruments and delivered another high point with “A New Season.” And hired wunderkind Craig Wilson filled out the sound with additional keyboards, guitar, six-string bass, mandolin, percussion, and vocals. Wow. He looks all of fourteen. Hopefully we’ll hear more of him.

This brings me to the man on whom rested the heaviest burden, the man who had to memorize reams of his own stemwinding lyrics and regurgitate them on command: singer and bassist Steve Kilbey. What he brings to the table is a cracked piece of stained glass. Approach from one angle and you’ll see beauty, from ugliness. If you don’t look closely enough, you’ll miss it entirely, but if you focus too hard your eyes will bleed. If, however, you move the whole arrangement just so, Ahhh…you’ll catch a glimpse of that dreamworld he’s been sneaking off to for decades. And then you’ll be hooked. You’ll keep coming back no matter what.

I have written previously about Steve’s Jekyll and Hyde persona; how there is “New Steve,” the norm in recent years: warm, affable, generous and very funny; and “Old Steve”: dark, cynical, bitter – or as he describes it in his own words: “tired n emotional.”

At the Triple Door we got a little bit of Old Steve, which is to say, a little bit of an edge, a bit of the old caustic energy. But with a very important distinction: in the past, Old Steve gave the impression of being detached from the whole thing: a grumpy god annoyed by the inconvenience of having to descend from the clouds (or climb up from hell; you take your pick) and sing for his supper.  But this Steve, the Triple Door Steve, fully appreciated his audience. He didn’t say much else but he continuously thanked the crowd. Detachment had given way to an almost frightening engagement with the “angry” songs in the set. He snarled his way through “Anchorage,” “Mistress,” and “The Disillusionist” with something approaching Kurt Cobain ferocity. “Anchorage” set the tone:

Darkness returning
My torch keeps on burning for you
In the life you keep on spurning
Everything is hurting me

And “Mistress” seconded the motion:

Everything is going wrong
All my songs are coming true.

During songs in which he was less engaged he would literally and figuratively recede, giving up the reins to Marty. At some points he even put his hand to his head as if the whole thing were causing him pain. Yet never once during the show did he stop playing the shit out of his bass.

As for where the anger was coming from, I imagine Steve would say that that’s irrelevant; the music is supposed to be a Rorschach test into which we’re supposed to read our own rage. Sometimes the church’s music is water, sometimes it’s fire. Tonight it was fire. He wanted us to burn with him.

There. Have I convinced you yet? You have the opportunity to see one of the best rock bands out there sweat blood for you. This ain’t the Craptacular Black Eyed Peas at Superbowl halftime, this is the genuine article. This is loud rock n roll in a small, enclosed space where the stakes are very high. Get on a plane if you have to. Just get your ass in one of those seats. Now.”

Robert Dean Lurie is author of No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and the Church, published in 2009 by Verse Chorus Press.