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After 2 days into the tour, finally the opportunity to go online. Although the Church is my fave band and has been part of me and my life for more than 20 years, a sense of wonder still creeps into my system whenever I'm about to see them live again after a pauze.

But they've done it again.. the 1st night of the tour they blew me right off my socks. Already when hearing the album Untitled#23 for the 1st time a week prior to the tour, I was overwhelmed with pride, and impressed with how my fave band has managed to make yet another album bearing all the signs of an alltime classic.
The album has a strong core identity. It's unmistakably The Church, while sounding so fresh.. foremostly has Steve Kilbey taken his vocals into a new realm.. extrovert, confident and strong sounding. This is even more apparent and striking witnessing them live in concert. Than there's the song Happenstance, the 2nd Church song ever where Steve is.. hmm, how shall I put this.. co-head vocalling rather than duetting I suppose, with Marty, and it works beautifully. The album otherwise shares the daring trippy qualities of Forget Yourself, while maintaining a delicate sense of melancholic beauty. The strength of a street-fighter turned into the mastery of a martial-art expert.

In concert so far the audience has been offered 5 songs of the album, the single-song Pangaea an obvious choice. Besides Happenstance there is Deadman's Hand (a breathy and brooding song in which the Church' trademark top-notch guitarplay really shines through), Operetta (a song where my point about Steves evolved vocals is obvious), and Space Saviour (the 2nd encore song, functioning surprisingly good right after the mighty good'n'old Interlude! )
The Church this time around is about rock.. Tantalized kicks it all into motion. Starfish (NSEW, UTMW, Reptile, Hotel Womb) and Blurred Crusade are the most prominently revisited albums.. You Took being delivered so elaborate and powerful like I've never heard it before.. it's like the band has managed to conjure, while taming, an aural vulcanic flow of rock music, and persevering it long enough so you feel you just had the f%¤%k of the century!! Almost With You is with us again.. electric, melodic, beautiful.
I almust bursted of joy when hearing the opening chords of A Month Of Sundays, a song I've only heard once before, taking me back to my very 1st Church live experience. From Uninvited Like The Clouds we got the powerful Block, and the cinematic hypnotic Day 5. Also impressive was After Everything.. me almost forgetting it when trying to remember all the songs.

The Church live in 2009 are on par with my most cherished moments of concert experiences ever.. try do whatever you can to catch them live this time! You only live once!

Photo's taken at the Golden Plains festival at Meredith, VIC, Aus from sunday march 8th 2009 can be viewed at The Church Band page on Facebook. In spite of the setlist being cut in half, it was ace to see the band on a big stage again (where they truly belong) with good lighting and a big sound. For each more song the varied crowd of mainly youngsters were drawn more and more into the music. Had the band had the opportunity to play a full set, they'd won over most of the people there. Almost With You and unsurprisingly UTMW were the biggest crowdpleasers, but it was fun to witness young people blurt out "Oh ..WOW!!" while You Took was being brought to its climax.

Die Kirche über alles!!!