By Adam Lucas

INGLEWOOD—And now for a glimpse of the future.

The first leg of Eric Church’s Free the Machine tour ended Saturday night in Los Angeles. Fittingly for a show that from day one of rehearsals has been about an entire musical storytelling experience, the first leg culminated at the $2 billion Intuit Dome, a facility we’ll likely look back on ten years from now as the blueprint for the next generation of arenas.

Every fan in the building has their own embedded USB-C charger in their chair. Video can be projected on a 44,000 square foot halo board that rings the entire interior of the arena, which brought the drawings behind Church a little closer to every fan in attendance. Every seat includes the same lighting technology Chief fans might have seen with the bracelets used at the Concert for Carolina.

You can come to an Intuit Dome show to watch the concert. Or you can come to an Intuit Dome show to watch the arena. Luckily, there were more fans of the former type than the latter type on Saturday night.

That was the first thing you noticed. Yes, it’s Los Angeles. There are plenty of stereotypes that come with this location, but Saturday’s crowd was loud, appreciative, and could have been just at home at Rupp Arena or the Resch Center as in Hollywood.

The only negative was the weather. “I’m pretty sure it rains three days a year in Los Angeles,” Church said. “I’m here for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And I pulled up my weather app and went, ‘Fuuuuuuuuck you.’”

It rained most of the day Saturday and is projected to do more of the same on Sunday, when Church will remain in town for a private preview of his new IMAX movie and an appearance with Jimmy Kimmel. But the uncharacteristic precipitation didn’t stop Church Choir members from lining up hours ahead of the arena entry time. They knew that with an impending two month hiatus, it was their last chance to see Church in person until late January.

Those two shows (at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., more of an old school venue with a club vibe that artists love) will be less advanced than this one. But playing here did make you wonder what else Church might do over the next decade or two. As more venues emulate this one, it opens more opportunities for his team to experiment.

They’re already at the outer limits of conventional touring. While others are content to play some of the same songs with similar presentation, Church has spent the last two months trying to see how far he can go musically and thematically, and has continued to take risks as the tour evolves. Saturday night included a trombone solo—a trombone solo!—from Roy Agee before “Knives of New Orleans.” The in-seat lighting glowed for “Desperate Man” to signify the change from the Evangeline vs. The Machine portion of the show, changed to green for “Creepin’,” and went multicolor for “Springsteen.”

Front of house maestro Ben Rigby was reflecting on this tour recently. It’s not just an expression of Church’s creativity. It also challenges everyone involved on a daily basis. That’s a test that isn’t for everyone, but for those who thrive on it, they love it.

“Where would I even go from here?” Rigby asked while considering the idea of joining other tours. “We have 24 people on stage every night. We have so many great players and so many great people I work with directly who are absolute pros. Everything I want to do, I can do here.”

As more arenas pop up like the Intuit Dome, there will be even more opportunities to try new approaches. Keep in mind that even as this tour progresses, Church is still creating. Still writing new songs you’ll be singing for the next two decades, still trying new formats (sure, why not do an IMAX movie?), still wondering what else he can do that no one has seen before.

Yes, let’s play the hits. Give the people “Hometown” and “Smoke a Little Smoke.” But also do an entire headlining tour playing the new album front to back every night and walking fans back from 24 musicians at the beginning, eventually down to the original Eric Church Band, and finally just him alone on stage with a guitar…all during each show. Oh, and add elaborate video and production elements just to make sure it doesn’t get stale, plus a story that begins before he ever takes the stage. He’ll be back in Los Angeles in February as a Grammy-nominated artist; that feels like an audience where this kind of exploration will resonate.

But—remember the music. Church knows none of the fancy bells and whistles can happen without the songs. Or maybe they can happen, but fans will eventually see through them. We are less than six months removed from the Red Rocks rain show, where he stood on stage alone and then with occasional help from Joanna Cotten in a torrential downpour and entertained a sellout crowd for three hours.

Rigby, Cotten and everyone else know the creative impulses can happen at any time. The set list very plainly said “EC Solo” next to “Round Here Buzz” near the end of the show. But while playing the song, he got the idea to bring Cotten back on stage—“Let’s see how fast they can find Joanna Cotten,” he said on stage—setting off a mad frenzy to find her backstage.

She was quickly back up front again, where Church played the opening notes of “Drowning Man,” which was not on the set list. “What do you think?” he asked her as he began.

She undoubtedly thought what everyone else has thought throughout this tour, what will be the predominant feeling as the second leg begins in January, and what Church, manager and creative partner John Peets, and the entire team will think as more arenas like the Intuit Dome come online in future years:

Make sure you have the music. And then let’s fucking try it.