Eric Church Holds His Own at Record-Breaking Nashville Show

Eric Church wrapped his ambitious Holdin’ My Own Tour in Nashville this weekend with two sold-out performances at Bridgestone Arena. During his tour, the singer performs two marathon sets without an opener and Friday evening (May 26) had Church on stage for over three hours playing nearly 40 songs. The Chief also set a new attendance record with 18,996 concertgoers at the arena, breaking Bon Jovi’s previous record of 18,514 set in February. The hometown show had the singer nostalgic and vowing to give fans everything he had.

“This is our last two shows of the whole tour,” Church said several songs into his set. “It’s bittersweet to me because I’ve never had more fun than I have the last five months. Every night before we leave the stage, I tell the crowd that I promise to give them everything I have. I think it’s safe to say we’re going to give you more than everything we have tonight. I need you to meet me halfway tonight if you can. There’s been a lot of shows here but you’ll never see one like tonight. I, Eric Church, solemnly swear to give you every damn thing I have tonight and I’m counting on Nashville to give me the same thing.”

Church, who built his career performing in dive bars and rock clubs, was at home on stage singing for nearly 19,000 fans. Throughout his 39-song set he segued effortlessly from the amped up tracks like “Drink In My Hand” where the crowd would raise their beers in unison, to the more sentimental songs including “Carolina.”

While he played all of his major hits with “Springsteen,” “Talladega,” and “Give Me Back My Hometown,” among others, it was his deep cuts and early material that the crowd went wild for. He added 2006’s “Two Pink Lines” to his set list for the diehard fans, which he hadn’t played in a while. “We brought this back for the people who have been with us since the beginning,” he said.

Later, while playing “Record Year,” Church paused singing to collect several of his vinyl records from fans in the pit. He’d then sign each one of them and hand them back to their owners. Another highlight included fan favorite “These Boots” where those wearing cowboy boots raised them high in the air, some throwing them at the singer to autograph. He’d collect a few from the audience, once again signing them with his silver sharpie, before returning them to their rightful owners.

“We’re not going to do this for three hours. We’re going to do this for more than three hours,” Church later said to thousands of screaming fans. “There is not a bigger bar on Broadway than this bar right here. It’s gonna get a little dangerous from here to the end.”

Additional highlights included the high-energy “Smoke a Little Smoke” and “Chattanooga Lucy” as well as backing vocalist Joanna Cotton’s jaw-dropping contributions on “Kill a Word” and “Over When It’s Over.” The singer’s powerful vocals even had Church looking back at her impressed. It was Church’s four-song solo performance towards the night’s end that also struck a chord. Before playing “Sinners Like Me” alone on guitar he asked the crowd if they were sure they wanted more. They screamed in approval as he gave them a closer look into his rise to fame, explaining how he’d often dream of moving to Nashville as a teenager living in North Carolina.

“I used to dream of moving to Nashville. It was always about those songwriters. I was enamored with what Music Row was, what 16th Avenue and 17th Avenue were,” he explained. “When you get here and you meet those guys and girls who write those songs that we all know by heart and we all sing, it’s the most magical place. I’ve been everywhere in the world and it’s the most magical thing, that on those two little streets 16th and 17th Avenue, there’s songs written that define people’s lives.”

He then performed “16th Avenue,” a song written by Thom Schuyler and recorded by Lacy J. Dalton in 1982, that discussed the life of songwriters in that very same location.

“I was going back and forth if I was going to do this. I’ve never done this, but I was listening to this earlier this week and I thought, ‘What the hell?'” he said before strumming the song on his acoustic guitar.

He would go on to close his marathon set with the ever appropriate “Holdin’ My Own,” adequately proving that for over three hours Church can captivate a crowd of nearly 20,000. And like he promised earlier, it was certainly a concert unlike any other.

Church’s Holdin’ My Own Tour closed Saturday (May 27) at Bridgestone Arena.