NEW YORK — Australian rockers the Church had to perform at

the Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night without their frontman, Steve Kilbey,

who was jailed that afternoon on a drug charge.

Kilbey was charged with drug possession in the seventh degree, which refers

only to cocaine or heroin, according to Detective John Giammarino, a

spokesperson for the New York City Police Department. Kilbey spent Tuesday

night in jail.

"He was in with people who were jaywalking," Laurie Stalter, a

spokesperson for Thirsty Ear Recordings, said.

The singer, who was arrested on the corner of East 6th Street and Avenue

D in Manhattan, was released from jail early Wednesday in time to join

his bandmates for the next show on the Church's tour, an engagement

Wednesday night at a club in North Carolina, according to Stalter.

Kilbey's case was adjourned "in contemplation of dismissal," Wayne

Brison, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney's office, said. If

Kilbey has no more run-ins with the law in the next six months and performs

a day of community service, the case will be expunged from his record,

Brison said.

The Church have released two albums so far this year: Under the Milky

Way: The Best of the Church, and Box of Birds, a collection

of covers that includes versions of Television's "Friction" and the Monkees'

"Porpoise Song."

The band, founded in Sydney in 1980, is best known for its top-20 hit,

"Under the Milky Way" (RealAudio

excerpt), from its 1988 album Starfish.