Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

So, I haven't been good about posting my pictures from the Church's show last Sunday. They played over at the Rialto, with Rob Dickinson (Bruce's cousin!) of the Catherine Wheel opening.

Of course, I got no pictures of Dickinson. I took a couple, but they didn't come out. The flash is useless at that distance, and only serves to get you thrown out of most venues. Ask James Hudson about that one.

Their last Tucson show, so the band said, was back in 1984. I don't think they even had an American release back then. They described the place they played; it had to be Nino's.


The band consisted of the core of Peter Koppes and Marty Wilson-Piper on guitars, Steve Kilbey on Bass and vocals, plus drummer Tim Powles. The drummer that some of you may remember, Richard Ploog who played on "Under the Milky Way" and their other near-hits, left the band years ago.

Kilbey and Wilson-Piper (By the way, Marty Wilson-Piper makes my list of "Best Rock Names That Actually Appear on a Birth Certificate List") bantering. The two of them engaged the audience fairly often, which I'm not used to seeing at a venue as large as the Rialto.

Peter Koppes on keyboards. The band members switched roles on some songs. For example, Koppes took over vocals on the song "A New Season" (one of only two songs from Starfish that they played), Powles switched to keyboards at one point and Wilson-Piper played drums!


Kilbey, looking a bit like Bono. Natalie will dispute that one, I'm sure.

Wilson-Piper taking lead vocals on "Tristesse," the only song I recognized off of Heyday.

Koppes, who at one point became angry about his guitar not being in tune. He stormed off the stage, he yelled at the crew (I didn't actually hear him yell over the music...just saw the gesticulation), before rejoining the band later.

The show was pretty mellow. Their songs are already pretty mellow anyhow, but as you see, the only electric guitar on the stage was Kilbey's bass. It probably would have been better in a smaller venue, but I don't think anyone in that crowd complained.

As far as the set list goes, many of us stopped following the band after Priest=Aura, their last album to have decent American distribution. But you have to remember that they have had ten albums since then. Most of the songs were off of the newer albums, but they did a latin-flavored cover of "Metropolis," "A New Season," "Tristesse," and, of course, "Under the Milky Way." They also reached back all the way to their first album, 1981's Of Skins and Heart, to do "An Unguarded Moment."

The band also performed a song that Kilbey wrote with the recently deceased Go-Betweens singer, Grant McLennan.


Wilson-Piper commented that Calexico would be proud of the way they did "Tristesse." Most of the songs on that album have a bit of Joeyburnsisimo, so I can see that. It also gave us locals a chance to go "Hey, they mentioned our band..." When they play Oakland, I bet Wilson-Piper says "I bet Heavenly States would be proud of that..."


Kilbey commented on the heat (they are from Australia, it's not like they have a problem with "hot"), and complained about George Bush. He also asked how many Republicans were in the audience. Only two people raised their hands. Ain't Tucson great?


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.