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The Church
Slim’s, San Francisco – June 12, 2009
By Cecilia Populus-Eudave

One of the quintessential bands from the 80s is still at it, kids. The Church has just released their 20+ record titled Untitled #23 and don’t assume by the name that this is their 23rd effort because even the guys in the band can’t agree on the correct number. In support of Untitled #23 the band has embarked on a 26-city tour and you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you miss them. You can imagine that with such a huge catalogue of songs it must be quite daunting choosing the ones that would comprise the set list for the So Love May Find Us tour of the U.S., so for those of you who only know the Australian band by their hit Under the Milky Way rest easy, it made the cut. For more dedicated Church enthusiasts you’ll be pleased with the diverse selection.
Heyday's Tantalized began the night and it EXPLODED into buzzing waves of musical energy. I imagined that the front row of enthusiasts looked like the "blow away" guy from the Maxell ads of the 70s. The force was palpable as Slim's room temperature spiked and ricocheted from wall to wall; all of that energy had to converge somewhere and it unfortunately found it’s target in drummer Tim Powles’ mixing board. The meltdown, which lasted longer than a few minutes, called for Steve Kilbey (bass, lead vox), Marty Willson-Piper (guitars, vox) and Peter Koppes (guitars, vox) to buy some time by storytelling and fooling around with different melodies that seemed to want to morph into improvised masterpieces if only given enough time. While the mostly female stage crew (Tiare and Davida, who rocked by the way) ran around trying to set things right the audience maintained their "sophistication" and graciously waited for things to be sorted. It was a mutual love fest between The Church and the Slim's audience except when a couple of drunken guys became too verbose and brazen but they were dispatched effortlessly by Kilbey's quick wit. I enjoy it when someone is cleverly put in their place (insulted) in a manner that escapes the receiver yet thoroughly finds the mark with everyone else.
There were many, many highlights throughout the set with the guys performing as enthusiastically as ever, their craft perfected by years of nurturing and feeding their talent, their skills polished and faultless throughout years of uncompromising dedication. The guitars sing better than before, the bass and drums keep the rhythm like masters and the lyrics continue to provoke thought and inspiration.
I’m thankful that I never jumped off The Church Experience, thankful I had the foresight (20+ years ago) to realize that these musicians, artists, men, would never fall short of extraordinary.
Let me just finish by saying that ALL of the songs were mini-musical land mines (classics sounding brand new, new sounding like future classics), each one detonated with an intensity so excruciatingly powerful that the musical notes and words transformed into beautiful color making the night something that transcended dimension and reason. (tsk tsk all this hippie talk - hell, people I'm in San Francisco!)
One last thing: Space Saviour is so different from the record; it's a blistering meteorite live - GET READY!

Set list:
Tantalized
Block
Day 5
NSEW
Happenstance
After Everything
Almost w/You
Month of Sundays
Deadman's Hand
PangaeaYou Took
Operetta
UTMW
Reptile

Encores
An Interlude
Space Savior
Hotel Womb

 by C. Populus-Eudave

Colin Devlin, who along with older brother Peter Devlin comprise the Irish band The Devlins, has taken on the creative enterprise of releasing a solo record titled Democracy of One. The musical debut is being produced by Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan, Rufus Wainwright, Daniel Lanois) a long time musical collaborator of The Devlins and the producer on their acclaimed CD Waiting.

 Colin Devlin photo by  Sonia Olcoz

Colin was recently in Buenos Aires, Argentina filming a video for "Raise the Dead", one of the songs on Democracy of One. He was working with filmographers Sabrina Mottino and Sebastian Lopez, the same team that produced the video for "Waves" (title track of the band's most recent CD), which can be seen on The Devlins' MySpace page:  www.myspace.com/thedevlins . (The Devlins plan to record a record next year, so stay tuned...)
 

A picture of the artists below, l-r: Sebastian Lopez, Colin Devlin, and Sabrina Mottino 

 Visit Colin’s website at www.colindevlin.com where, despite still being under construction, you can  preview three musical solid gold nuggets: "Raise the Dead", "Refuge" and "What Good is Love", and gaze at the gorgeous photos taken by Kenny Laurenson. For an extra track, "The Heart Won’t be Denied", check out Colin's musical MySpace home at www.myspace.com/colindevlinmusic .

After you’ve filled your senses to the brim with all that is Colin Devlin, send him a friend request and join the Democracy of One.