Seminal psych-rockers The Church have just announced their first national headline tour of Australia in four years. Western Australia has scored two dates on the tour, with shows lined up at Perth’s Astor Theatre on Thursday, September 1, and The River, Margaret River, on Friday, September 2.
Entering their fourth decade of making music, ARIA Hall of Fame inductees, The Church will treat fans with two remarkable sets over two and a half hours with a taste of new songs from the band’s forthcoming 26th studio album, The Hypnogogue – plus performing a string of hit songs across their expansive music career including Under The Milky Way, Reptile and Almost With You.
The 2022 epic five-piece line-up is bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey; with long-time collaborator TimEbandit Powles, drummer and producer across 17 albums since ’94; guitarist Ian Haug formerly of Australian rock icons Powderfinger, who joined the band in 2013 and Jeffrey Cain (Remy Zero), touring multi-instrumentalist who is now a full-time member of The Church since the departure of Peter Koppes in early 2020. The band have also recruited Ashley Naylor, long-time member of Paul Kelly’s touring band and one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists (Even, The Grapes, The Stems).
“A band is like a family and over 40 years it is only natural that families will change,” said Steve Kilbey. “It’s too big a body of work not to keep exploring it. It’s a psychedelic walk down memory lane from a band that spans four decades – and continues to create thought-provoking music in the Millennium.”
The Church recently completed a headlining tour in the US which included an invitation from Coachella’s promoter, Golden Voice to perform at their inaugural Cruel World Festival that saw a crowd of fifty thousand in attendance playing alongside new wave and post-punk contemporaries Blondie, Devo, Echo & The Bunnymen, and The Psychedelic Furs.
The Church play Astor Theatre on Thursday, September 1, and The River, Margaret River, on Friday, September 2, 2022. Tickets are on sale Tuesday, June 21 from sbmpresents.com
