The Church will play a run of west coast dates leading into their performance at the Cruel World festival alongside an unbelievable lineup of contemporaries including Blondie, Devo, Echo & The Bunnymen, and Psychedelic Furs. Tickets for the tour on sale Friday, January 21st at thechurchband.net. North America last saw the church in 2018 for the tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of Starfish. The band’s newest album is currently being mixed and fans can expect to get a taste of the new music at these shows in addition to the classics. The Church plan to return to the states for a more extensive tour later this year.

“American audiences have always been extremely important to the Church after 40 years of touring We are very much looking forward to playing again in the US in 2022.” – Steve Kilbey.

The 2022 epic line-up is bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey; with longtime collaborator timEbandit Powles drummer and producer across 17 albums since ’94; guitarist Ian Haug 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 recently recruited one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists Ashley Naylor (Even, The Grapes). Ashley and Steve have collaborated on many different projects over the years and now was the perfect time to bring Ashley into the band. It will be Naylor’s first tour of the US with The Church as the band press on into their 42nd year. The group has an unwavering want to carry on performing the immense body of work that has been put together from past to present to future.

Kilbey says: “A band is like a family and over 40 years it is only natural that families will change. It’s too big a body of work not to keep exploring it.”

Few bands enter their fifth decade of making music with all the fierce creative energy of their early years. Few bands are like The Church. 

Their body of work stretches back in a continuous line to classic early albums Of Skins and Heart and The Blurred Crusade, which revealed a distinctive soundscape of sharp pop hooks and towering guitars complementing Kilbey’s lyrics and vocal tones. The more intricate arrangements of Heyday gave way to the wide-open atmosphere of Starfish the 1988 album which broke into the mainstream and gave them the international hit “Under the Milky Way”. The hit single has been regarded as one of the most influential and recognizable Australian rock anthems of all time. Starfish also gave us “Reptile,” a song that never seems to date, and is a live favorite around the world. 

In 2010 The Church were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame and reaffirmed their status as one of the world’s great live bands with the ‘Future Past Perfect’ tour, performing their Untitled #23, Priest=Aura and Starfish albums to rapturous audiences in the US and Australia.

The five-year gap after the release of Untitled #23 became the most extended break between new albums in the band’s career. Haug, formerly of Australian rock icons Powderfinger, joined after the departure of Marty Willson-Piper, sparking a renaissance with Further/Deeper (2014) and Man Woman Life Death Infinity (2017) and introducing new anthems like “Miami” to the set. 

In 2018 the band played the Meltdown Festival in London at the invitation of curator Robert Smith of The Cure. The Church went on to play sold-out shows in the UK, US, Canada and Australia celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of Starfish. Details for their forthcoming 25th album to be announced soon.

Tour Dates:

May 4 –  Petaluma, CA – The Phoenix Theater 

May 5 – Grass Valley, CA – The Center for the Arts

May 6 – Reno, NV – Virgina Street Brewhouse

May 7 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Common Wealth Room

May 8 – Ft Collins, CO – Washington’s

May 9 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre

May 11 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom

May 12 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s (Outdoor)

May 13 – San Luis Obispo, CA – SLO Brew The Rock

May 14 – Pasadena, CA – Cruel World | Brookside at the Rose Bowl

May 15 – Pasadena, CA – Cruel World | Brookside at the Rose Bowl