Strange tourmates - The Afghan Whigs and the Church

The twin bill of the Afghan Whigs and The Church seemed off. The Whigs, Nineties hard rockers from Cincinnati gained a following but never quite reached the big time. But for a few hit singles (and one huge one, Under the Milky Way), The Church could still be toiling in Australian obscurity with their jangling rock. 

But the two bands' frontmen - Greg Dulli and Steve Kilbey - are longtime friends and have record together for a project that never reached fruition. The merch table offered a seven-inch with two songs from that effort, but that's all we saw on this tour. 

The summer tour hit downtown Denver's Odgen Theatre in mid-June for an evening of well-crafted rock songs.

The slow-building move from opener to twin headliners the Afghan Whigs and The Church broken open the show seamlessly. After a few piano and solo guitar ballads, opener Ed Harcourt brought Afghan Whigs violinist/multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson to join him for a song. Then came the rest of the band save Whigs frontman Greg Dulli. 

Finally, Dulli emerged for a raucous, full band performance of Harcourt’s song Broken Keys. Then came the Whigs set, with Harcourt returning to the keys for several songs. The band brought its undisputed chops immediately and never relented through their 90-minute set. 

Original bassist John Curley has returned for each iteration of the band, while Colorado native Patrick Keeler (of the Greenhornes and Raconteurs) supplied the drums. Guitarist Christopher Thorn (formerly of Blind Melon) rattled off leads with ease, sticking to the side of the stage and shying from the spotlight even when Dulli tried to reel him in. 

The Whigs spanned their entire history, touching on the essential albums of their 90s prime and the equally edgy material from three post-reunion albums from the last decade, mostly recently 2022’s How Do You Burn? 

Dulli shut down the shouted song requests early, pointing out how hard it would be to pivot to the requested song without practicing it. Then came the calls of “I love you.” He explained that he stole his “I love you too” response from Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment anytime someone says “I love you.” 

That was enough to calm the shouts and let the band play. It was relentless, energetic, and probably should have closed the night. 

But the Church were the headliners. The lag between the Whigs and the Church didn’t help either. The Church got to work quickly, with singer/songwriter/lone original member Steve Kilbey. 

While guitarist Ian Haug dealt with a broken effects pedal, Kilbey add-libbed some lyrics about the broken pedal. Having seen them the year before, that ended up as one of the few spontaneous moments in their headlining set. 

They threw in Reptile when the crowd badly needed a lively number, but the new tracks don’t have the liveliness of staples from The Blurred Crusade or Starfish. 

They are not bad songs, but slower tempos don’t stand up when the Afghan Whigs play first. Then there was the Hypnogogue. The most recent Church record is a concept album set in the 2050s. The songs are fine, but the intros grow labored quickly. They should be able to stand up without the odd backstory.

Having heard the backstories on the Hypnogogue songs a year ago, our patience wore thin. The set lean on mellow songs, a miscalculation after the Whigs blistering pace. 

Ten songs deep into the 15-song set, one Hypnogogue intro finally proved too many for us. We heard it before, and it does not age well. By which I mean you don't want to hear it twice in 16 months. 

I have to wonder how the show would have left me had the Whigs and the Church traded spots in the lineup. The Cinci band’s energy just didn’t carry over to the Church’s mellow musings. 

Still, it’s hard to beat two bands with very different temperaments and friendly lead singers playing at the Odgen.