I knew pretty much nothing about the Church except Under The Milky Way and that they were supposedly a huge name in Australian music. Given the latter, i was hoping to discover yet another great band. Unfortunately I was rather disappointed.

This was an accoustic set, a double set, and part of the first tour of their new album. The first set was all new stuff that no-one had heard before, the second the old classics.

At one point during the first set the lead singer said "in all our years this is our first time at this" ... I still don't know if he meant first time playing accoustic, first time playing a double set or the first time they've played to a sit down cafe venue. Either way they weren't doing a very good job of it.

The songs were nothing really too stand out. The arrangements were nothing too special, and the performance wasn't that great.

I thought maybe they just have a really dull album coming out, we'll wait and see what the second set is like. The second set didn't get much better - in fact, in places it got worse. Guest keyboard player was .. some guy whose name I do know, but have forgotten. Apparently he toured solo with them a little earlier. Anyway, Under The Milky Way was played with mostly a solo piano accompaniment. A very poorly arranged solo piano accompaniment.

It's a fairly slow song anyway, but they just slowed it down to about 1 beat per minute. And put a very dodgy piano line under it. The version I play is better.

After hearing this and hearing the other rather uninspiring songs they were churning out, I decided that the gig I'd given up to see the Church would have been better. After a quick sms exchange, it was off to the Louisville Sluggers, leaving the Church still playing to a crowd of loyal fans.