The Church in London - 2nd April 2004

The Church played an OUTSTANDING show tonight at the Mean Fiddler - good crowd (large!), fantastic sound! The band were fabulously on form with a lot of smiles and many jokes...The Theatre and It's Double was incredible (think Marty was shaking his fingers after that one) - In fact all the songs from FY sounded much better live

I and two friends arrived at the Mean Fiddler after priming ourselves in a couple of pubs in Soho - Charlotte had seen them 4 times before with me but Uzma had not heard any of their music before so it was a case of "Will She, Won't She" like them?? (In fact Uzma said she really enjoyed the first three quarters of the show but the last half-hour she didn't so much). Inside the venue I immediately spotted lead singer Steve Kilbey speaking to someone but I decided not to interrupt their conversation and shyly walked past to the bar...

The support act "Richard Strange" was introduced by Steve Kilbey himself much to the shock of the patient crowd (by the way this was the best crowd I have ever endured at a Church concert , no talking in the quiet moments and no idiots with hand puppets either!!). Steve said that Richard Strange (and his band the Doctors of Madness) were a huge influence on his music writing. The man played an acoustic set and some readings also and was both amusing and compelling

On to the Church, who came out at about 8.35pm and played for 2 solid hours - The sound was fabulous throughout with Steves vocals coming through very clearly and no ringing of ears afterwards. As I mentioned before the crowd were superb and really enjoyed the bands banter, superb playing and smiles all round...I've never seen them so happy (It was a million miles away from the groups Garage gig 6 years back). The highlights were Theatre and Its Double (Martys fingers must have on fire...this song was incredible!!);Under The Milky Way (they seem to reinvent ways of playing their old material everytime I see them - superb ebow effects from Peter on this one); Destination is one of my favourite songs and did not disappoint tonight; Appalatia was sung superbly by Peter (whose not the best singer in the world). Tantalised was fast, furious, and amazing(Marty really does punish those guitars of his) I thought Tims drumming was fantastic ...he did not hold back once!! Overall the band ROCKED like no other time I've seen them.

My only gripe was Cantilever as an encore which I felt didnt quite fit in being rather self-indulgent and all too guitar wank....The last song You Took was a great version (I can't believe that song is 20 years old!!)...There was no time for Myrrh as the Mean Fiddler had a strict curfew (to make way for a Rock Disco)

Unfortunately as I was well back from the stage and over to the right hand side I did not get any particularly good photos, but I made the best of them and here they are below....

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