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Worthy
of Praise
By
John Brodeur
The
Church, Adam Franklin
The
Egg, July 10
After almost 30 years of making records and touring the world
as part of Australian rockers the Church, Steve Kilbey and
Marty Willson-Piper still geek out when they see a King Crimson
T-shirt. Kilbey admitted from onstage Friday night that, when
he bought Larks’ Tongues in Aspic at age 18, he never
imagined he’d one day see a guy trade a Crimson shirt for
one sporting his band’s logo. But Willson-Piper asked for
it. Perhaps he was joking, but he did say, “Can I have
that shirt?” The fan was only obliging; he surely never imagined
he’d one day surrender his Larks’ Tongue shirt to one
of his favorite bands.
This kind of devotion was felt throughout most of the Church’s
long set at the Egg. The smallish crowd (200-250) went absolutely
wild for the Australian psych-rock group from the opening
“Tantalized,” which found Willson-Piper chopping away at his
Rickenbacker like a man unhinged. (His shaggy appearance,
somewhere between hipster and homeless, only added to the
spectacle.) The band—whose lineup also includes co-founding
guitarist Peter Koppes and longtime drummer Tim Powles—came
off the starting block with purpose; the fact that the song
was drawn from their Heyday LP was perhaps an unintended
joke.
What’s no joke is the group’s track record: Friday’s set emphasized
the current decade, and the new material not only stood with,
but sometimes outshined, the old. A pair of tracks from 2006’s
Uninvited, Like the Clouds were early highlights, especially
the pleading “Block.” Here, Koppes switched to the 12-string
electric that defined some of their best-known songs as Kilbey
reflected on his, and man’s, shortcomings (“Even Jesus Christ
was betrayed by a kiss”) with his conversational baritone.
The dark, acoustic-driven new song “Happenstance,” from this
year’s Untitled #23, was another high point, pairing
sonic elements from the band’s classic work with interesting
three-part voice arrangement (Powles pitched in frequently
with backing vocals); it recalled Radiohead’s “Karma Police”
in its chorus. And the back-catalog picks—early classics like
“Almost With You” and “Month of Sundays”—sparkled with a quality
often referred to as “jangly.”
Which brings us to “the hit.” The Church’s 1988 Starfish
album was a bit more produced than their previous work, and
resulted in their only U.S. Top 40 single, “Under the Milky
Way.” Now, there is little doubt that this is an excellent
song; there’s a reason it still turns up on ’80s CD compilations.
But Kilbey’s introduction to it on Friday sounded like a preemptive
apology, and the performance was forceful but flat: They just
didn’t seem like they enjoyed playing it. In front of a crowd
that knew the words to even their latest material, they really
didn’t have to. Smartly, that was redeemed with the frenetic
“Reptile,” which brought the fans out of the seats and onto
the theater floor for a miniature throwback dance party.
Swervedriver/Toshack Highway man Adam Franklin opened the
night with his new band, Bolts of Melody. The vintage Fender
Jazzmaster is the instrument of choice for Franklin and, in
true shoegaze fashion, he guided dreamy clouds of sound from
his six strings—as well as some wild squalls of guitar feedback.
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Photo:
Julia Zave
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Heavy
Metal Parking Lot
California
commercial-punk legends the Offspring headlined the
Big Day Out festival at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on
Sunday. The band are touring in support of last year’s Bob
Rock-produced Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. The daylong
show also featured sets from alt-metal brooders Staind, Daughtry-approved
rockers Shinedown, plus radio staple-makers Chevelle and Sum
41. The festival was sponsored by radio station WHRL 103.1
FM.
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