On Tuesday night in Edmonton, Eric Church fans were treated to the show from one country music’s best. If his first headlining tour is only the beginning of what’s to come, it’s hard to say what will come next for the singer.
Church kicked off the show with ‘Country Music Jesus’, a fan favourite from his smash album Chief, the album which has taken him to new heights with hits such as ‘Springsteen’. Church performed many of his hits with a lights show that was out of this world, designed perfectly for his set of songs. But, when it came time to slow it down, he performed hits like ‘Love Your Love the Most’ and ‘Sinners Like Me’ acoustically himself -which is always a nice thing to see during a show; variety.
As Church and his band kicked back into a full show, the said to the over 16,000 fans packed into Rexall Place, “Do disrespect to Garth Brooks, Rod Stewart or Kiss, who have all sold out this venue just as I did tonight, but I came here to burn this son-of-a-….. to the ground”.
The crowd went nuts to say the least, and burn it to the ground he did, performing songs off his two previous albums Carolina and Sinners Like Me. ‘Drink in my Hand’ was one of the clear highlights of the show, which had the crowd singing along with every word. I’ve seen a lot of shows over the years, including Garth Brooks this past summer. This show comes a close second in terms of entertainment, singing, and crowd interaction. The energy between Church, his crew and the crowd was one that is rare to see.
As he closed the show, fans of course wanted more and he came back with ‘Smoke a Little Smoke’ to the fans approval – in a big way. Floor stomps, screaming, singing; you name it, it was happening. He closed the encore set with the biggest hit of his career to date, ‘Springsteen’. A sea of cell phones glowed throughout Rexall Place.
Church left the crowd saying, “Edmonton, this was an epic night….. an epic night. Thank you!”
What I know now: if that was a ‘Church service’ then Eric Church is my new religion.
