The current Already Yesterday tour by The Church has showcased the great, mostly overlooked first four albums of the band ‘Of Skins and Heart’ (1981), ‘The Blurred Crusade’ (1982). ‘Séance’ (1983) and ‘Heyday’ (1984).
Putting those four albums released from 1981 to 1985 into context, The Church were considered an alternative band and music radio was still dominated by pop AM stations like 2SM, 3XY and 4IP with FM radio in its infancy, so radio did not prioritise The Church at the time.
Australian music was at its most potent at this time. Cold Chisel, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, (then Melbourne based) Split Enz and The Angels had grown out of the late 70s. The Church came along around the same time as INXS, Men At Work, Mental As Anything, Mondo Rock and Icehouse and a little after Australian Crawl. There were no national TV and radio networks. As a country we relied on Countdown. It is easy in retrospect to see how a great band could easily fall through the cracks.
While The Church didn’t rise to the same levels in the 80s as many of the above, they sure did over time. Songs like ‘The Unguarded Moment’, ‘Almost With You’ and ‘Under The Milky Way’ took on a life of their own as they aged with the audience through Alternative, to Rock to Classic Rock radio formats.
And so here we are today, Steve Kilbey is 70 and playing to more people in bigger venues than the band ever did in their (to quote their third album) ‘Heyday’.
This isn’t The Church of then. Steve Kilbey is the only original member. Behind him is the best of the best, with somewhat of a supergroup made up of members of Powerfinger (Ian Haug), Remy Zero (Jeffrey Cain) and Ash Naylor (Even) with drummer Tim Powles, a thirty year veteran of the band, first appearing on the band’s ninth album ‘Sometime Anywhere’ (1994).
Steve Kilbey is the only current member who performed on the original recording of every song from this setlist. For Naylor, Cain and Haug, they were performing a lot of these songs for the very first time.
This band performing these songs was epic. The Church was powerful. At no time did The Church feel like Steve and friends. This is a 100% solid rock band. Where The Church shined brightest was when you least expected it. The eight minute epic ‘You Took’ from ‘The Blurred Crusade’ was a guitar stampede while ‘Tantalized’ mesmerized.
‘Disappear’ is a real rarity. I can’t find evidence that it has ever been played live before this tour. ‘Bel-Air’, ‘She Never Said’, ‘Travel By Thought’ and ‘From The Moment We’re Strangers’ has certainly only been performed less than a handful of times since the 80s, if at all.
The Already Yesterday show is split into two parts with no obvious order to the songs. Steve had more banter in the first set explaining how ‘Bel-Air’ was the first Church song he wrote at his parent’s house in Canberra when he was 19 with his mother of the other side of the wall telling him to “shut up” while he was writing it.
He describes the non-album track ‘Life Speeds Up’ as “a contemptuous b-side” and said it was used in a surf movie. ‘Disappear’ was a song he said he wrote in South Melbourne.
We didn’t get the stories in the second half. Starting this show at 8:30pm was clearly a miscalculation for the amount of content they wanted to perform. Part two felt rushed. They overshot the curfew runway by 15 minutes but managed to give us a one song encore with ‘Under The Milky Way’.
Kilbey is Australia’s most prolific songwriter. The Church have 27 studio albums to their name but Kilbey has more than 50 with his various side projects and solo projects as well as The Church live albums and best of’s added in.
Getting Steve to agree to revisit the past was a coup for Face To Face Touring. Kilbey likes to keep in the now
Set 1:
When You Were Mine (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2018)
Tear It All Away (from Too Fast For You EP, 1981) (2012)
Already Yesterday (from Heyday, 1985) (2011)
Bel-Air (from Of Skins and Heart, 1981) (1998)
Life Speeds Up (b-side of Almost With You, 1982) (2018)
Just for You (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2018)
Disappear? (from Séance, 1983) (first time)
Fly (from Séance, 1983) (2023)
One Day (from Séance, 1983) (2023)
Electric Lash (from Séance, 1983) (2011)
She Never Said (from Of Skins and Heart, 1981) (1982)
Almost With You (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2024)
You Took (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2024)
Set 2:
It Doesn’t Change (from Séance, 1983) (2000, 1988)
Myrrh (from Heyday, 1985) (2024)
Secret Corners (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2018)
Columbus (from Heyday, 1985) (2023)
Tristesse (from Heyday, 1985) (2012)
Is This Where You Live (from Of Skins and Heart, 1981) (2023)
It’s No Reason (from Séance, 1983) (2011)
Travel by Thought (from Séance, 1983) (1988)
For a Moment We’re Strangers (from Of Skins and Heart, 1981) (1986)
An Interlude (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2024)
The Unguarded Moment (from Of Skins and Heart, 1981) (2024)
Tantalised (from Heyday, 1985) (2024)
Don’t Look Back (from The Blurred Crusade, 1982) (2018)
Encore:
Metropolis (from Gold Afternoon Fix, 1990)
Under the Milky Way (from Starfish, 1988)
The Church Already Yesterday remaining dates are:
Fri 29 Nov Brisbane │ Fortitude Music Hall SOLD OUT
Sat 30 Nov Hobart │ Odeon Theatre
Thu 05 Dec Perth │ Astor Theatre SOLD OUT
Sat 07 Dec Adelaide │ Hindley St Music Hall
Find tickets at https://facetofacetouring.com.au/current-tours/the-church-the-already-yesterday-tour
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