The Church at The Fonda Theater

The Church, The Fonda Theater, September 15, 2017

Forty years and The Church still take you on a trip into the dream pop psychedelic realm of delight. Musically the band finds new ways for some of their songs to still sound fresh and new. Yet they are still classic in their gigantic collection of songs. They achieved this in remarkable interpretations of Metropolis and Under The Milky Way. These were done more acoustic than pure electric. This gave the songs there chance to shine as a purity of enchantment to one’s ears. Included in the set The Church reached back and performed Myrrh and Fly. Fly is another soothing inspired song that makes you want to let go and just soar above everything that is happening around you.

The Church still knows how to rock, to be sure. They did this by performing Reptile, North South East West and Tantalized. Ian Haug has found his stride as The Church’s new guitarist, exploring and expanding these songs with ease. But this night was to introduce us to a newer post-Pink Floyd style with The Church’s psychedelic influences on their newer material. On October 6th, The Church will be unveiling a new album entitled Man Woman Life Death Infinity making it their 26th magnum opus to date. They performed the single Another Century to a great round of applause and appreciation. This single should do really well for The Church.

Tonight’s show featured Jeffrey Cain of Remy Zero on keyboards and extra guitars, as well as Steve Kilbey’s trusty bass tech, who played a couple of tunes as well. It was good seeing Steve Kilbey get out from behind his bass and just sing to the audience. Another great treat was The Church ended up doing two encores this evening. The most special thing that happened was during the last encore The Church performed one of their earliest singles The Unguarded Moment. This time though Steve Kilbey’s daughters arrived on stage and sang the song.   All in all The Church played a jammed packed set of 18 songs lasting over two and ½ hours!  Thanks to Steve Kilbey and to the band for a great treat of letting us see this happen. Kudos to Steve Kilbey and The Church for being such a great supporter of us here at Highwire Daze.

(Review by Jonathan D Wright – Live Photo by Ken Morton – Fonda Theatre photo by Bret Miller)

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