By Adam Lucas

ST. LOUIS—Leave it to Eric Church to dispense some wisdom and then prove it.

“I learned a long time ago,” he told a sold-out crowd at the Enterprise Center, “if we are having fun up here, you’re going to have fun. And I’m having a fucking great time.”

We’ve reached the point of the tour when the fun level is increasing every night. Around thirty shows in, the band is constantly looking for new flourishes to add. John Henry Trinko had an extended keys introduction to “Mistress Named Music” on Saturday. Just this weekend, the group decided to add a Roy Agee trombone solo to “Cold One.” Agee swaggering onto the stage from the rear, blaring his trombone, and then capping his solo with a quick Big Roy jig is the absolute embodiment of happiness.

It all fits perfectly with the environment Church has created. It doesn’t have to be this way, you know. It would be acceptable—and much easier—to just stand on stage with the usual suspects (or as Church likes to call it, “the OG band”) and play the songs everyone came to hear.

But he’s just not capable of doing it that way. As he noted during the show, he covered Nelly when he played St. Louis in 2022 (and what he didn’t mention was that he did both “Ride Wit Me” and “Country Grammar,” and it was incredible). That was just Church on the stage with a guitar.

This time he came back with two dozen musicians joining him on stage. Most people can’t do even one of those options. Church does both, plus other permutations he probably hasn’t thought of yet but that you’ll be seeing in 2028. Enjoy this version, then, while it’s happening. 

Enjoy the fun. The people on stage certainly are. The horns, strings and background vocalists leave the stage before “Drink In My Hand.” But they don’t entirely leave, because they don’t want to miss any of these moments. Which is why nearly a dozen people who had just been on the stage were standing, dancing and singing just out of view stage left to “Drink,” creating about three minutes of pure joy.

Touring can easily be routine. The set list comes out, you play those songs, you pack up and head to the next city to do it all over again. Moments like “Drink In My Hand” help remind everyone of how much fun it can be. Driver Williams came over to salute the dancing musicians with a guitar solo. MJ Sagraves, Chuch’s guitar tech who has seen everything at least twice, was in the middle of the explosion of dancing and was grinning so widely you’d have thought Kentucky just won an NCAA Tournament game.

That willingness to let go for a few minutes is contagious, which is what makes Church’s crowds so entertaining. As the other musicians danced on the side of the stage, a five-year-old named Tenley watched them with evident glee. Saturday night was her fifth Church show, a fifth birthday gift from her parents, who have seen approximately 40 Chief concerts from their home in Chicago. She was wearing a snazzy custom denim jacket that said “Church Time” on the back.

Tenley’s dad, Bob, used to listen to Church with his father before his dad passed away. Now he spent the evening in the pit with Tenley on his shoulders, singing every word to every song with her. Church ambled over to their side of the stage during the “Proud Mary” addition to “Smoke a Little Smoke,” and Tenley promptly threw up the rock and roll devil horns to the singer. 

He had to grin and reply accordingly with a devil horns gesture of his own. We’ve got Big Roy dancing, we’ve got Tenley throwing up the horns, and we’ve got indelible songs from the last two decades. Yeah—that’s pretty fun.

No Nelly this time, but Church did add “Rock & Roll Found Me” for just the third time on this tour. Then he stretched out a solo acoustic segment near the end of the show to include “Love Your Love the Most,” “What I Almost Was,” “These Boots,” and “Carolina.”

The last song he played before the traditional show closer of “Through My Ray-Bans” was appropriate. That’s because it was “Those I’ve Loved” (for only the second time on this tour) and it includes these lines. They were true in 2009 when the song was released and they’re even more true nearly 20 years later, when everyone from the last row of the Enterprise Center to Tenley in the front row of the pit sang and danced and—yes—had fun on a Saturday night hearing Eric Church sing some songs.

He even tweaked the words just a little for the occasion, making sure everyone understood that the guy up there on the stage wearing the Ray-Bans had just as much fun on this rocking Saturday night as they did. 

“It was never about tryin’ to be some big star

For me it’s always been about these songs

You see they’re my best friends

They’re the life I live

And I hope they put a smile on St. Louis’ face.”