By Adam Lucas

COLUMBUS—On Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio State won one and lost one.

The Buckeyes pasted Ohio University, 37-9, at Woody Hayes Stadium. But three miles away at Nationwide Arena, and with all due respect to Ryan Day and the defending national champions, they lost one to Eric Church.

Because of the scheduling particulars involved, dates for the Free the Machine tour were booked before 2025 college football schedules were released. And the second night of the tour was scheduled well before any game times were released, so no one had any clue that the Buckeyes were going to kick off at 7 p.m. and Church was going to take the stage at 9 p.m.

As Church observed the tailgating scene around Columbus Saturday as 105,765 fans prepared to pack The Shoe, it was reasonable to wonder if this was a very unfortunate scheduling collision.

But judging by the amount of Ohio State jerseys in the Church crowd, plenty of people made the decision to either skip out after the first half or skip the game entirely. That was the choice made by Courtney and Brent Parker, who made the trip from Cincinnati to the concert. Courtney was wearing sparkly red Ohio State eye black patches and Brent was wearing a jersey, but there was never any question about which event they’d be attending.

“It’s my 37^th birthday,” Brent said, “and we had to be at the show. Eric hasn’t been to Ohio in two or three years and he isn’t coming to Cincinnati on this tour.”

So they made the 90-minute drive without hesitation, and they sang every word. And the verdict?

“It was phenomenal,” Courtney said. “We were so blessed to be here for this.”

It was that kind of night. From the moment the Church Choir began lining up several hours before doors opened, eventually winding around the corner and down the sidewalk, it was just one of those shows.

Let’s see…how to describe this loud, rowdy crowd. Oh yes:

“It’s always a great thing to smell it before you play it,” Church said from the stage. “That’s the greatest way to request a song.”

And then he broke into “Smoke a Little Smoke” as a cloud wafted over the floor seats.

This was a Saturday night crowd in every sense of the word. They took energy from the stage and gave it right back, and by the time Driver Williams finished ripping through a guitar solo in “Creepin’,” even Church had to grin.

“Shit,” he said in the middle of the song. “I enjoyed that.”

It quickly became obvious that Church and Columbus have a special connection. This might only be the second night of the tour, but their history goes much deeper than that.

“The hottest show I ever played in my life was at Whiskey Dick’s,” Church said, referencing an August 2007 show at the now-closed Columbus institution. It was just a year after “Sinners Like Me” was released. Whiskey Dick’s was primarily famous for hosting Bikers Night on Thursdays and having a tattoo artist who worked directly in the bar, a potentially hazardous combination of permanent ink and hazy decisions.

“It was one of the first shows,” Church said, “where I saw the music connect. At that time, sometimes it didn’t. But that night, it did. And that carried us for a long time.”

Church and the original Eric Church Band played “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” that August day in Columbus. And they did it again on this September night 18 years later.

He also played “These Boots” at both shows. And just as he remembered, it connected again, with fans holding up boots all over the arena. This tour is a big production. But at moments—including Saturday night—it can still feel like a club show in all the best ways.

Church rewarded the fans by riffing a little towards the end. The evening began with 24 people on stage. Now, though, it was down to just Church and a guitar. “There’s a guy down front who has been screaming this song at me all night, so dammit, I’m going to do it,” he said. And he broke into “Two Pink Lines.”

“And then I heard this one from over here,” Church said, pointing at the other side of the pit, as he began playing “Chevy Van.”

He just couldn’t stop. “Let’s keep going!” he said as he looked to the side of the stage, where his crew was long since supposed to be packing the 15 trucks for the overnight drive back to Nashville.

It was the perfect reward for the Columbus fans who had to make a choice between their beloved home team and their beloved visitor.

“Naw, I’m not worried about missing the Buckeyes,” said another Ohio State fan, JJ from London, Ohio, who was wearing a “Buckeye Country” t-shirt and was attending his first-ever Eric Church concert. “This was an excellent show. It was really good shit. And now I’ll go home and watch the game.”

Sorry, Buckeyes. Under Day’s direction, you’ve proven to be extremely difficult to beat at home, where you have a 23-game home winning streak, the third-longest streak by any Big Ten team in the last 80 years. But on Saturday night, you learned something that’s been true for the better part of two decades, going all the way back to Whiskey Dick’s:

Eric Church is damn near unbeatable on the road.