Due to popular demand, THE CHURCH announce second N. American Leg of “The Hypnogogue” Tour

THE CHURCH
Photo credit: Hugh Stewart

Kicking off on September 28^th at Seattle, WA’s Neptune Theater, this live journey finds the band circling the continent, including shows in SoCal, New Mexico, Georgia, Florida, and Illinois. The Church will also be offering a limited number of VIP packages on this tour, which will include a show ticket, early venue access, an invitation to the band’s soundcheck, a special meet & greet with the band, exclusive merch items, and watching a portion of the show itself from the side of the stage (where available). “I feel like a heavyweight fighter getting into the ring, pretty confident that he is going to land a knockout punch,” he laughs. “The new songs are just going down so well, not to mention the other 40 odd years’ worth of music that all seems to fit so well blended in and rendered anew by my lovely talented cohorts!” (see full dates below.)

In addition to the tour, The Church will be releasing a digital deluxe edition of The Hypnogogue which will include additional songs not included on the original 13-track album. to be released this fall to coincide with the tour.  More info soon!

The first thematic and narrative album in their career, The Hypnogogue (released February 24, 2023 via Communicating Vessels), found the band with arguably some of the best reviews in their 40-year history. A.V. Club lauded, “There’s a warm intimacy to this trippy, low-key affair that invites you to trance out into contemplative bliss. Elements of the goth, new wave, and space rock worlds that intermingled when they started still coalesce here… The Hypnogogue works equally well as retro and timeless music.” BrooklynVegan adds, “Forty some years into their existence, these Aussie psych legends are making some of the most vital music of their careers.” Under the Radar assures, “The Hypnogogue reaffirms why this band have been held in high esteem for so long.”

“The Hypnogogue has come to life on stage during our U.S. and Australian tours this year,” says Kilbey. “Every night we play, I understand more about what it is. I am so buoyed by the audience’s enthusiasm for the songs and stories behind the songs that I’m constantly reinventing and recalibrating the whole shebang!”

Starting in 1980, The Church continued expanding their highly cinematic and atmospheric blend of indie rock, shimmering post-punk, icy dreampop and psychedelic post-rock without retreading their steps. Their expansive music career yielded a string of hit songs, including “Under the Milky Way,” “Reptile,” “The Unguarded Moment” and “Almost With You” amongst others,and their equally stellar live shows have been deemed “spectacular” by MAGNET Magazine, citing their “dreamy psychedelia that will daub your evening with shades of paisley.” Their recent U.S. performance at 2022’s Cruel World Festival alongside Blondie, Bauhaus and Morrissey was heralded as “a subtle delight… that captivated the late afternoon audience” (Orange County Register), “providing the perfect soundtrack” (Rock Cellar Magazine).

Founded by bassist and vocalist Steve Kilbey, the line-up is rounded out with long-time collaborator Tim 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 has also recruited Ashley Naylor, a long-time member of Paul Kelly’s touring band and one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists (Even, The Grapes, The Stems).

“I’m most excited for anyone who hasn’t heard this record and also those who have as they feel all the love and work that goes into these songs coming  to life every night,” Kilbey concludes, reflecting on The Hypnogogue and its dystopian narrative within. “We constantly streamline and improve the music and as I go on explaining (to them and myself) the crazy and haphazard world of Eros Zeta and Sun Kim Jong [the album’s central characters] and the strange beast that is the Hypnogogue!”

TOUR DATES