Last night a group of us took a punt and went and saw The Church at The Civic Theatre.
I say took a punt as they have not played for a while and it would appear Steve is the only remaining member, there is a drummer he has had since the mid 90s, but none of the original line up. This sort of thing always leave me concerned.
And Steve can be cantankerous.
I saw them once back in the day and they were great and I have seen Steve solo a few times.
This concert was billed as The Hypnogogue World Tour. The Hypnogogue being a new album, I was curious.
After another amazing meal at Menya Makoto, we headed to the theatre. We immediately could see it had not sold out and there were a LOT of empty seats in front of us. The tickets were a bit exy for a Aussie band.
We commented on the many empty seats and waited for them to start.
Out they came to thunderous applause and they played an unfamiliar but ok sounding song. But something felt wrong, they sounded flat and a little off. Halfway through the song you could see a roadie trying to get Steve's attention. I had initially thought the small audience and many gaps put them off, but it was a tech issue. So much so they had to go off stage for a small amount of time while it was fixed. Not a great start understandably
It was not a long break, of course the bogans in the audience had to go out and get more booze. I really will never understand the human race. The amount of people heading in and out to the bar was very distracting and rude and may have influenced the evening for the band.
They came back on after a few minutes and restarted the concert.
They sounded much better. But this first half lacked something, even with the tech fixed. I appreciate and enjoy the laid-back guitar focused pop/rock that is The Church, but I am no way a huge fan. I don't know every song, but I do know a lot. They played a mix of hits and popular songs mixed in with songs from the new album.
This first half was mostly the atmospheric guitar songs, and that was fine, but as an older audience, it kinda made you (me) sleepy.
The main problem was the new album - it was actually quite good, but it was a concept album and high concept at that. It was obviously made to play as a whole, as concept albums are meant to. And this is how they should have started the concert.
The concept was a dystopian future - highly original (I jest!) - about a thing called The Hypnogogue that can pull songs out of people's heads and a musician goes in search of it. This is a very very basic explanation, Steve had many many more highly detailed explanations. I am still unsure if he was being amusing or serious. The thing reeked of just out of high school, early University wankery. But the songs were quite good, despite the long winded explanations before each one. Having said that, it was lovely to hear Steve being affable and chatty, as opposed to his usual cantankerous self.
A lot of people left during the interval, which is a shame as the second half was much better. Still nowhere near great, but better. They played a lot of the more uplifting and rockier/pop songs in this half. They sounded a little more together in this half.
I've seen a lot of concerts and lucky to only have a handful of bad ones to report back about. And I am picky, when I pay big bucks for something I want value for money. This was not bad, it just wasn't great.
I think the venue was not suitable, something smaller, more intimate - Lizottes or even the good ole Cambridge (where I think I saw them way back when) would have been a better choice.
They most definitely should have played the concept album in full and in order for the first half, I would have enjoyed that rather than the disjointed mix of songs that were pulled together. It was like they had an amateur who had never written a set list or made a mixed tape pull it together.
They didn't need an interval, but if they played the concept album first, took a small break and then came back to play the hits in the second half, well, that would have been perfect.
Please don't think I hated this concert, I really didn't, I enjoyed it but it left me feeling a little cold to be honest. I cannot rave it was brilliant or the best thing I have seen because it simply was not. I have seen them before and they were better. Thing is this is a new and youngish band, you cannot replicate the original sound and for some very odd reason (especially for a band known for guitar music) they had 2 drummers that added nothing special to the music. One drummer is sufficient, but whatever. That was the least of their worries.
They played Under the Milky Way mid way through the second half. They probably should have saved that to go out on, but I get not making a big deal of their biggest song. It did sound great, better than anything else played, but then it is a great song, better than anything else he ever wrote. I loved seeing all the bogans in the audience finally awakening and getting up to dance - to that one song, and then sitting down again as he played a slower, less dancey song.
My personal favourite, Almost with you, was also played in this half and it sounded good. The jangly guitars not quite as good as they used to be but close.
It finished just before 11 and we were done, but the audience wanted more (really!?!) and they came back on and played Reptile - which Andrew loves and sounded great and You Played, an ok song that they stretched out for way too long. They had worn out their welcome with me, I was done, we left before they finished the song - as many others did.
We all debriefed as we walked back to our car, we didn't hate it but didn't love it. Something was missing or off. We all agreed the venue just didn't work for them and the many empty seats in the audience was probably off putting. I explained my theory of playing the new album in it's entirely and everyone agreed.
Maybe we are getting too old and cynical, maybe you can never revisit old faves, I am certain - from observations - that many people enjoyed the evening far more than we did. Although that could have been the alcohol they consumed, lol. But we do see a lot of gigs and listen to a lot of music. They WERE good, just not as good as they could have been.
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