{"id":1306673,"date":"2019-03-23T15:02:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T21:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1804239"},"modified":"2019-03-23T15:02:29","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T21:02:29","slug":"eric-church-is-all-in-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/eric-church-is-all-in-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Church Is All In In Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 38m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

If you want to get to bottom of why Eric Church<\/a> shows are the phenomenon that they are, you have to go. But you also have to stay. Because much like Church himself, these shows don\u2019t just quit halfway in.<\/p>\n

And since Church was all in, his fans were all in. For three and a half hours on Friday night (March 22), Church maintained a captive audience for more than 40 songs. Start to finish, there were 35 full songs, and then a medley of seven cover tunes within one of his very last songs of the night.<\/p>\n

The show opened with \u201cThat\u2019s Damn Rock & Roll\u201d and \u201cDesperate Man,\u201d both from his most recent records. But then Church threw his 13-year-old first single \u201cHow \u2018Bout You\u201d right into the set. Throughout the first half of the show, he stuck with his own songs: \u201cMr. Misunderstood,\u201d \u201cCold One,\u201d \u201cOver When It\u2019s Over,\u201d \u201cCan\u2019t Take It With You,\u201d \u201cDrink In My Hand,\u201d \u201cCarolina,\u201d \u201cHigher Wire,\u201d \u201cBefore She Does,\u201d \u201cTalladega,\u201d \u201cCreepin’\u201d and \u201cThe Outsiders.\u201d Oh, and a few seconds of old Hank Williams\u2019 \u201cI\u2019m So Lonesome I Could Cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Church prides himself on varying the set list from night to night and from town to town, the crowd knew to expect the unexpected. So when the 20-minute break gave everyone the chance to get a drink and stretch their legs, they did so in a hurry. It was as if the short intermission forced them into some kind of Church withdrawals.<\/p>\n

So when everyone was back in their seats and just as eager as they were at the start of the show, Church explained what could possibly happen next.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the second half. Somewhat of a home stretch. Although tonight,\u201d he warned, \u201cI\u2019m having a damn good time. We might just play a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right around the time he brought out a few newer songs, like \u201cThe Snake, \u201cKnives of New Orleans,\u201d and \u201cRecord Year.\u201d In what\u2019s become a Church tradition, he spent a full three minutes autographing album covers fans had brought to the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis next song \u2014 and every parent has been through this \u2014 there\u2019s that thing you go through when your kids are scared of the monsters underneath their bed and in the closet. And my oldest son Boone was real scared one night,\u201d Church shared before he played \u201cMonsters,\u201d \u201cand I came into his room. And all he wanted me to do was turn the bathroom light a little brighter. And that changed everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, at this time, there was a lot going on in the world and a lot going on in my life. And I had the thought: if only it was just the monsters underneath the bed that we had to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that glimpse into his private life, he headed straight back to his rowdy side, with \u201cPledge Allegiance to the Hag,\u201d \u201cJack Daniels,\u201d and \u201cMixed Drinks About Feelings.\u201d Then it was time for a couple deep-rooted, no-boundaries covers: REO Speedwagon\u2019s \u201cTake It on the Run\u201d and Mavis Staples and The Staples Singers’\u201dI\u2019ll Take You There.\u201d<\/p>\n

After another handful of his own wind-ranging country songs (\u201cHomeboy,\u201d \u201cDrink a Little Drink,\u201d \u201cSome of It,\u201d \u201cHeart Like a Wheel,\u201d \u201cKeep On,\u201d and \u201cRound Here Buzz\u201d), he checked in with the crowd two hours into the show. Just to make sure he could keep on keeping on. \u201cYou good? You tired? Don\u2019t you (expletive) quit on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The night was close to drawing to an end after Church brought out \u201cThese Boots,\u201d \u201cGive Me Back My Hometown\u201d and \u201cSpringsteen,\u201d the trio of his mandatory crowd pleasers.<\/p>\n

Then when it came time to almost shut the show down, Church used his own \u201cMistress Named Music\u201d to bookend a medley of songs from all walks of life: \u201c(Sittin\u2019 On) The Dock of the Bay,\u201d \u201cLook Away,\u201d \u201cI Want You to Want Me,\u201d \u201cEye of the Tiger,\u201d \u201cI Love Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll,\u201d \u201cPour Some Sugar on Me,\u201d and \u201cSweet Home Chicago.\u201d The collection of mixed music fit perfectly inside the song about chasing a song until you\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n

Church closed the show, just a little before midnight, with one of the songs that started it all, \u201cSinners Like Me.\u201d It was the title track off his 2006 debut album. But like Church himself, it showed absolutely no signs of aging.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s Double Down tour stop was the first night of Church\u2019s two-night stay at the Allstate Arena just outside of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\n
Alison makes her living loving country music. She’s based in Chicago, but she’s always leaving her heart in Nashville.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alison Bonaguro 38m ago If you want to get to bottom of why Eric Church shows are the phenomenon that they are, you have to go. But you also have to stay. Because much like Church himself, these shows don\u2019t just quit halfway in. And since Church was all in, his fans were all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1306673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 23:54:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1306673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1306673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1306673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1306673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}