The Church at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, July 8, 2024–Live Review
The Church at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, July 8, 2024–Live Review
Church fans rejoiced as the Aussie psych-rockers belted out back-to-back sets at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento on July 8, 2024. Even the cold that dogged bassist/vocalist/sole remaining founding member Steve Kilbey’s vocals couldn’t stop the band from playing for over 2 hours.
The Church have been touring with the Afghan Whigs this summer, but the Whigs were a no-show that night (Church guitarist Ian Haug said he didn’t know why they didn’t perform), so The Church decided to play a second set, for a total of an even two dozen songs, including two encores. The audience got an unexpected treat.
The sets were a true long-time fan’s dream, digging deep into their back catalog, playing only music released from their start-up to 1996’s Magician Among the Spirits, except for 10 tracks from their two most recent albums, The Hypnogogue and Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars. Somewhat recent live staples like “Laurel Canyon” and “Miami” were missing this night, as was “Pleasure”, from Eros Zeta, arguably the prettiest song they’ve written in years.
Instead, the crowd was treated to four songs from Starfish, three songs each from Blurred Crusade and Heyday, two songs from Gold Afternoon Fix, and one song each from Of Skins and Heart and Magician Among the Spirits.
Pete Bratach
The band were off to a great start with “Myrrh”, the opening track on Heyday. It’s a perfect road trip song full of shimmery guitars and yearning vocal harmonies. The band wasted no time before pulling out their e-bows, drawing out the notes in a mesmerizing fashion.
“Metropolis” came next and was the first of their early hits that most of the crowd recognized. The energy in the room noticeably picked up.
Then there was a brief mix-up before the next song, as Kilbey thought they were supposed to play “The Hypnogogue” (the setlist showed “C’est La Vie” as the third song). After some back and forth, the band decided to play it anyway (the second set’s playlist showed it as the second song, but they only played it one time). They brought the heavy atmosphere of the tune on the album to the theater. This segued into a lively version of “C’est La Vie”.
They moved on to a couple of older cuts. First was “An Interlude”, from A Blurred Crusade. The song slowly built up until about the midpoint, where it really took off, giving them a good excuse to expand on it with a jam.
Then they played “Destination”, the first of four cuts from Starfish. Multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Cain closed out the song with a nice little piano figure.
Pete Bratach
In his introduction to “No Other You”, Kilbey, who has never turned his back on a clever turn of phrase, described Eros Zeta, the protagonist of the pair of concept albums, as a “flaky flop of a pop star [who] has fallen in love with the evil lady scientist,” so he writes the song about her.
That said, this was the first time his cold obviously detracted from a song that night. He asked the audience for some cold medicine. His voice always had this deep nasal quality that always sounded like he was congested, so it’s unfortunate he really was sick that night. Even more unfortunate, some in the crowd voiced their disappointment in the show.
Despite his cold straining his vocals and affecting the performance at times, Kilbey was a magician in good spirits, sharing funny anecdotes in between some songs, including one where he talked about how all “real singers” have scratchy voices when you meet them in person. He conjured up the time he met Neil Diamond, who greeted him with a throaty “hello” in his telling. He also asked the audience to “buy the merch so we don’t have to pay excess baggage fees“ in bringing it all back to Australia.
Three more recent songs followed. Ian Haug switched to mandolin for “Realm of Minor Angels”, then even more of the band went acoustic for “Albert Ross”. “Flickering Lights” was a pretty, dreamy interlude.
They brought the energy back up with “Comedown”, from Magician Among the Spirits. Sadly, Kilbey had a hard time keeping his voice from cracking as he delivered the line “You want to live forever, but you don’t want to age” I couldn’t help but think about how he relates to that line now as opposed to nearly 30 years ago when he wrote it.
Pete Bratach
Then the first set’s climax came, with “Unguarded Moment”, although Kilbey expressed his exhaustion at having to keep playing this song, but feels that he has to. It’s hard for me to hear him turn his back on one of his children like that since this song was my introduction to the band and still moves me to this day. The delivery was solid, though guitarist Ashley Naylor couldn’t match departed founding guitarist Peter Koppes’ harmonies. Long-serving drummer Tim Powles left the stage for the song, leaving touring drummer Nick Meredith to handle percussion on his own.
They closed their first set with “Grind”, the final track on Gold Afternoon Fix. With their lineup now solidified as a 6 piece — with three guitars and two percussionists — they bring a much fuller sound to their live shows than they previously could as a 4 piece. This was much more apparent when they played the longer songs that closed out each set.
After a short break, the band came out strong with a loud, jammy version of “Tantalized”, the longer instrumental parts giving Kilbey’s voice a much-needed break.
The second set focused more on old cuts, with three songs from Starfish alone. Always a crowd-pleaser, “Reptile” was the most well-received song of the evening. Later, “Hotel Womb” and “Under the Milky Way” were played back to back, with Kilbey saying “Milky Way” needed no introduction. Although Ian Haug and Jeffrey Cain switching to 12-string acoustics probably gave it away! Ashley Naylor substituted an e-bow for the bagpipe solo on the album version.
They also played “Columbus”, from Heyday, which continues to haunt me, as it always sounded like a lamentation for what the explorer wrought in the New World. Finally, they played “Almost with You”, the opener from A Blurred Crusade, as the penultimate song of the set.
Pete Bratach
As they did with the first set with “Grind”, they closed the second set with another majestically drawn-out closer, “Second Bridge”, from The Hypnogogue.
Then it was time for the encore. “Last Melody” was a synth-heavy slow burn before they ended the night with one final jam, “You Took”, from A Blurred Crusade.
Then the band walked off, to get ready for the next night’s show in San Francisco. Ian Haug stuck around for a few minutes to chat with some audience members and hand out a couple of playlists. He let it be known that no one shot clay pigeons at them this time around, unlike what happened the last time the band played Sacramento some 40 years ago (see the end of the Steve Kilbey interview)!
The only real downside to the evening, apart from Kilbey’s cold causing him to strain his vocals on some songs, was the theater itself. It’s a good size for the band, but there is no dance floor or standing section, so the audience must stay seated throughout, giving them no outlet to let loose and enjoy the music. Keeping everyone seated was a tall order when the band brought so much energy to the evening.
Pete Bratach
Overall, it was a solid performance from a band that plays well together. As Kilbey said in an interview I did with him for Psychedelic Scene, “it’s not really much of a surprise … when we had people who really wanted to be there, it made all the difference.” I wonder how different the show would have been if the Afghan Whigs also played. We would’ve been denied a second set, but maybe poor Steve’s vocal cords would’ve been happier.
Setlist
Set 1:
Myrrh
Metropolis
The Hypnogogue
C’est la vie
An Interlude
Destination
No Other You
Realm of Minor Angels
Albert Ross
Flickering Lights
Comedown
The Unguarded Moment
Grind
Set 2:
Tantalized
I Think I Knew
Reptile
Antarctica
Columbus
Hotel Womb
Under the Milky Way
Almost With You
Second Bridge
Encore:
Last Melody
You Took
Interview with Steve Kilbey from The Church (2023)
The Hypnogogue by The Church–album review
Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars by The Church–album review
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