U2 Can Love The First Unitarian Church Choir

An old Friend of Unfair Park's, Steve Dirkx, sure does love him some YouTube (though not as much as Google, heh). Over the past few days, the former Teenage Queer and Telefone (for the young and uninitiated, those are local punk bands of days long since past) has posted quite...

By Robert Wilonsky

October 10, 2006

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An old Friend of Unfair Park's, Steve Dirkx, sure does love him some YouTube (though not as much as Google, heh). Over the past few days, the former Teenage Queer and Telefone (for the young and uninitiated, those are local punk bands of days long since past) has posted quite a few items of local interest to the site, among them the Telefones performing "The Arabian Wars" at the long-defunct Hot Klub in 1981, another Telefones performance from 1982 (with Mark Griffin, which is to say MC900 Ft Jesus, on trumpet) and the Teenage Queers (fronted by the late Bobby Soxx) performing "Scavenger of Death" at the Zero Club in Fort Worth in 1980. All good stuff.

But nothing tops the item below: a January 2006 performance by the First Unitarian Church Choir of Dallas on Normandy Avenue. What makes it so intriguing is the choice of material: a cover of U2's "MLK," the last cut off 1984's The Unforgettable Fire. Dirkx writes Unfair Park that he made the recording himself, since his brother-in-law happens to be in the choir; it's the family church, turns out, though Steve goes a little less often than the rest of the kinfolk ("about twice a year," which sounds about right for a guy who used to be in a band called, ya know, the Teenage Queers).

He also writes that the choir, which is directed by Don Krehbiel, is a progressive lot: "They have really good music, various guests from Dallas Symphony, etc.," he says. "Mostly open minded type of church. (Church for people who don't like church.)"

So here's rock music for people who don't like rock music. But, what, no "Sunday Bloody Sunday"? --Robert Wilonsky

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