Pop Music Reviews : Church Sounds Good but Covers Little Ground

It’s hard to imagine the Church giving a better account of itself than it did on Thursday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, in a set that was glistening, brooding, forceful and extremely well-played. But when the nearly two-hour show was over, one had to wonder how a band could develop for 10 years and cover so little ground.

Like U2 and R.E.M., the Church spent the 1980s refining a musical personality that was distinctive, but narrow. The Australian band’s small parcel of sonic and emotional space combines U2’s urgent belfry chime and R.E.M.’s dreamy web of murmuring voices and guitars.

Bassist Steve Kilbey sang with muted yet convincing emotion in a voice full of tasteful reserve. Guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper played glancing, finely etched parts that often used distortion effects and echo to evoke an encompassing rush of wind. Kilbey’s bass-thrum and the solid, active drumming of Jay Dee Daugherty ensured that the band’s most gauze-like textures always rested on a firm, rock pulse.

But instead of the versatility and striking contrasts that mark the work of the best rockers of the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Church could vary its basic ritual only by subtle shadings and small gradations. It may be more than coincidence that Kilbey’s outlook as a lyricist tends to be exceedingly bleak, frequently depicting a diminished world of stark limits.

The Blue Aeroplanes’ 50-minute opening set frequently sounded like a tribute to the Velvet Underground, but the British band’s performance and Gerard Langley’s half-sung, half-spoken dramatic monologues had enough zest and quirky immediacy to take on their own life.

The same bill returns to the Coach House tonight and also plays Sunday at the Ventura Theatre, Monday at the Wiltern Theatre and Tuesday at San Diego State University’s Montezuma Hall.