The Blurred Crusade

The Church have always been an important band to me. Which is strange to say because I came into them late.  Their first album was in 1981 when I was five. But I didn't hear of them until Under The Milky Way, like most people in America. Although I am not like most people in America. That song along with the follow up album Gold Afternoon Fix was one of those life changing moments. It meant more to me than my second kiss with a girl who introduced me to the band and then dumped me a few months later for not living up to her expectations or whatever.

The band stayed. That was the important part. Life moves on and who gives a shit about the bit player.

I already spoke about "A girl on the radio" to quote The Church song "Electric Lash" who hooked me up with tickets to see them at the IC Light Melody Tent Amphitheater which has either changed its name a dozen times or has ceased to exist. My money is on the latter although I don't know because I haven't visited Pittsburgh in decades.

Regardless (and despite the second kiss girl)  that night changed my life in so many ways.  And I know this because I was too young to have smoked anything let alone a cigarette and had no interest in adulterating my life.  So the feeling I felt was pure.

When I think back, the live bands that had that impact on me always occurred when I was stone cold sober.  The first time this changed was when I saw David Byrne when his album "Feelings" came out. I saw him at the same venue I saw everyone from Morphine to Cracker to John Cale, to the Smithereens but that particular night I had a few too many Whisky Sours and ended up sitting in the bar area rather than watching from the audience. The beautiful thing about Pittsburgh where I grew up is that people watched out for each other. I remember a waitress/bartender coming over to me with water, wanting to make sure I was okay. After a half hour I was. But that wasn't the point.

At that point my relationship t music changed, and it took only six months for me to reject the "drink as much as you can" persona and get back to what I loved the most which was music. I was lucky; a few people had their stomachs pumped during that time.

Even though I'm decades removed from that era I still embrace that feeling of hearing a band live and being bowled over by it. This has continued and even though I have only seen one band since the pandemic shut the fucking world down, I have no doubt it will continue.

A few years before the pandemic I saw The Church in Long Beach at a festival called Music Tastes Good. The idea was music plus gourmet food. It was brilliant. I saw Smog and Lizzo and New Order and The Church. I sampled a lot of mediocre food and well drinks, too. But the idea was smart. Unfortunately they couldn't make a profit and the pandemic put the kibosh on it.

And yet  seeing The Church in 2018 held the same power as it did when I saw them in 1992. Few bands can say that. And very few of them are multi-platinum selling artists.

Make of that what you will.