Many people were seen at the KFC Yum! Center Thursday night with cowboy hats, boots, and the matching plaid. Then there's that guy with a Metallica shirt. Oh wait, there's that girl throwing devil horns in the air. I'm sorry, who's playing?
Well it's Eric Church and as evidenced by the people in the crowd and on stage, this was no normal country music show.
From the lights, three sided video screens, long stage for band members to walk, drum set lowered from the ceiling, and strobe lightning, Church was ready to rock. He did just about two hours of it. A majority of it was fueled by the two (and sometimes three) electric guitars.
Church's acoustic guitar playing was done I infer so that he doesn't feel naked without one but he surprised the crowd by plucking on a few jam solos. They had never seen that side of him.
Something else they didn't see was a huge skull that showed up opposite the stage during "Devil, Devil." The crowd was likely distracted by the haunting images of Church that appeared on the video screen that were reminiscent of a ghost hunter home video that played during the prelude to the song.
But what country star would do that? Well one whose live show looks more like Motley Crue than it does from some of the legends he name drops early in his career like Merle Haggard.
Regardless, that's the kind of show this boot-wearing crowd wanted because they were raising their glasses and singing at the top of their lungs the whole time. That's because most of Church's songs turn into anthems when played live. "Springsteen" tabs The Boss's "Born To Run." "Drink In My Hand" is predictably an opportunity to get a swig and nail the chorus. "Give Me Back My Hometown" pushes five minutes with the addition of crowd induced "whoa, whoa, whoa, ah, whoa."
Church also didn't mingle with the crowd in the same way as other country stars have that I've seen at the KFC Yum! Center. There were no video images of the home basketball team (which by the way never goes over well considering the demographic) and no have a drink on me banter, but he continually talked about being lucky to do what he loves and sharing thoe moments with the crowd. He said he will always remember the shows he played at Fourth Street Live! and Coyotes.
So what are we left with? We've got a Springsteen/Haggard referencing country rocker who just released songs called "Cold One" and "That's Damn Rock & Roll." He treads the line of country and rock to the point where it's not about genre but actually connecting a memory with a melody as he says in "Springsteen." And for a guy who has had a diverse past, it was all shown last night and in full force shaking and electrified both him and the crowd.
