By Adam Lucas

 

THE PINNACLE—They lined up on Church Street (of course) and around the corner onto 9^th Street on Saturday afternoon. Eric Church was playing the second of two straight sold-out shows at Nashville’s The Pinnacle, tickets that were so hot that the Church Choir scooped up every one of them before the opportunity ever reached the public.

                  

No one knew exactly what they were getting. They knew the Evangeline vs. The Machine album was a more elaborate window into his artistry, but they also knew that Eric Church live shows are the closest thing to a rock concert we have in 2025. So how do you put those two together? How could he be extravagant and raw at the same time?

                  

Exactly like this.

                  

“When we set out to make this show,” he told the crowd on Saturday night, “it was very important that we created a show that will only be seen for these two nights. My favorite time as a music fan was knowing I was seeing something live. Not on YouTube. Not on TikTok. But live. I knew I would never, ever be in that moment ever again. That’s the power of music and the genesis of where this show began.”

                  

The overall production was a collaboration between Church and longtime manager John Peets, who has a deep rock background and thrives in spawning ideas no one else will ever consider, much less try. The beauty of the partnership is that Church has the ability—and the equally important quality, the courage—to execute those ideas. That’s how you end up with cameramen in white jumpsuits and gas masks, the better to symbolize The Machine. And that’s how you end up with 26 different people on stage, everyone from Church himself to the familiar faces in the band to a string section, horns, and backing vocalists. 

                  

In the first part of the show, in which he played the entire Evangeline album straight through, Church was as much a conductor as a performer. It felt big and important. Because ticket-buyers were the diehards, and even with the album only out a couple of weeks, it still turned into a sing-along. There’s nothing better than belting out “All hail rock and roll!” with a few thousand of your best friends, or roaring, “I…AM…THE STORM” along with Church.

                  

Because everyone made it look so simple, it’s easy to underestimate the work that went into these two nights. The Church production crew was working almost 24/7 on these shows leading into last week’s Royal Albert Hall performances, took a quick break to fly to London, and then came back to Nashville and started loading in on Monday. The lighting and camera setup began Tuesday. There were problems to solve (how exactly is Driver’s new bass drum going to fit on the stage?) and miracles to perform (the task: do a full-fledged arena quality show in a club). 

                  

It happened, of course. We might all be just slightly taking for granted what we’ve seen lately. Church has recently done the following:

                  

Coordinated the Concert for Carolina, setting a stadium attendance record of 82,193 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and raising $24.5 million for hurricane relief.

                  

Wrote and recorded “Darkest Hour,” expedited the release so it could serve as the centerpiece of relief efforts, and then donated all the proceeds to the state of North Carolina.

                  

Purchased land and began construction on 100 homes for families displaced by the hurricane.

                  

Recorded and released Evangeline vs. The Machine, which immediately took its place among your favorite singer’s favorite albums. How do we know? Bruce Springsteen—yes, the real Bruce Springsteen, 17 and old Jeep and stars in the sky—recently told Church exactly that when the duo talked before Springsteen’s show in Manchester last week.

                  

Announced a fall tour that will include elements of all the above and promises to be the most ambitious tour he’s ever done.

                  

Became one of three country artists in history to play two nights at Royal Albert Hall, one of the world’s greatest venues, adapting his very American residency show from Chief’s to play smoothly in front of an international audience.

                  

Performed two one-of-a-kind shows at a new venue one week later.

                  

This reads like a full career Wikipedia entry, but it’s all happened in the last seven months. In less than two months, he’ll play three completely different shows on three straight nights at Red Rocks, just because he can.

                  

And even with all the new pieces, even with the big production…he’s still Chief. He proved it by rolling straight into “Desperate Man” after playing the Evangeline album front to back, then packing in 10 more fan favorites. That led him into an encore which—by now you’ve seen enough shows to know this—was completely unpredictable. 

                  

“We’re piecing it together now,” he told the crowd as he made his song choices on the fly, starting with “Holdin’ My Own,” and then asking, “Do we know this?” to the band before a gorgeous rendition of “Those I’ve Loved.”

                  

The finale for both nights was “Like Jesus Does” with Joanna Cotten. That’s where Church is in his career. He can start the night with music that has been out less than a month, an intricate production, and have the crowd singing every word. And then he can close it with a song that’s been out nearly 15 years, utilize only a guitar and a spotlight…and have the crowd singing every word.

                  

“We’ve worked long on this and we’ve worked hard on this,” he told the crowd. “It’s because music means the world to us and we hope it means the world to you. That is what tonight is about.”

                  

And it showed.