Pulled out all the stops.
As we all know, Eric Church has never been one to stick to the status quo. From infamously getting kicked off Rascal Flatts 2006 tour thanks to playing too long and too loud to sending his Grammy-nominated 2015 album, Mr. Misunderstood, directly to fans before it was officially released, the Chief has a long history of doing things his way.
Along with doing things his way comes a whole lot of experimentation. It’s pretty safe to say Chief sounds nothing like Mr. Misunderstood, which also sounds nothing like Desperate Man. On the other hand, Desperate Man clearly sounds nothing like his first major sound pivot, 2014’s rock-filled, The Outsiders.
Even taking his 2021 triple album project, Heart & Soul, into consideration, last year’s Evangeline vs. The Machine proved to be the most experimental and ultimately ambitious project of his career thus far. In turn, the album, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Country Album, was an 8-track, 36-minute musical journey filled to the brim with fascinating production choices with the his newly-added choir and orchestral section that flowed seamlessly from song-to-song.
In case the album itself wasn’t enough, Church is also readying the release of his first-ever theater concert film experience with Eric Church: Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive in partnership with IMAX. The film itself will capture both of the North Carolina native’s sold-out nights at The Pinnacle in Nashville, Tennessee back in May.
Given that the film releases in select theaters in the U.S. and Canada TONIGHT (and again on Saturday, February 14th), the Chief released a behind-the-scenes video of sort, detailing just how this film came to be.
He’d begin by discussing Evangeline vs. The Machine itself, noting how there were times throughout the creation of the album where they could have easily bailed on the sprawling, interconnected nature of the project. Additionally, he note how much creativity not only he and his band had, but also all the supporting members of the choir and orchestra had as well.
“There was a lot of moments along this road to ‘Evangeline’ where we could have taken the exit ramp and got off. And probably, some times, we maybe thought we should, but we didn’t. We continued to trust our gut that this was right, and this is the right album in a time where it’s hard to tell what’s real, what’s not real, who played what or didn’t play what.
This is ‘Everybody get in a room,’ and each person is lending to the song their creativity. And that’s a rare thing, not just in country music. That’s a rare thing in music today.”
Unsurprisingly, Church was not satisfied with simply creating the album and leaving it be afterwards; he knew he had to bring it to life in concert. This, unfortunately, came with some incredible challenges given all the moving parts inside the album itself.
“The next plan, once we had the ‘Evangeline’ album, was ‘We got to do the same thing we just did in the studio, but we gotta do it live.’ Initially, when we were building out the setlist, we had talked about ‘Okay, we can still play this album, but maybe we take it apart.’ But it just didn’t work. I think the album was conceptualized, it was recorded, as one piece of art. And it just doesn’t work unless you put it that way.”
Once Church and Co. got the production elements of each concert down, the idea of capturing the film in IMAX at the back-to-back shows at the Pinnacle came to them… the only catch was they only had six weeks to prepare for the endeavor.
Reid Long, Church’s long-time creative director and director of Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive, would note just how complicated and extensive pulling off an IMAX film of this scale became.
“Every time it came up, we kept adding cameras and it kept getting more and more complex. Not only the volume of cameras but just the specialty cameras that we were adding, because we were trying to make the cameras be apart of the show.”
Long would also note that the size of the Pinnacle and the fact it only opened four months prior to the filming of the concert also came with its own challenges. In particular, the production team implemented a spider camera, which is typically found in large stadiums, into the small theater, something that had never been done before.
Church’s manager, John Peets, dove into the metaphorical nature of the cameras itself. Typically, cameras are hidden from view as best as they can be. During the taping of Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive, however, all camera operators donned all-white hazmat suits, symbolizing the machine that Church is fighting throughout the record.
“We wanted the cameras to be characters in the film itself and make the cameras represent, metaphorically, the machine — the machine being all the things that pull on us and pull us away from that purity. So for the film, we went representing that other side with these hazmat suit guys.”
Even with so many measures taken, both practically and artistically, next to nothing practically fit within the Pinnacle, as Long noted. Some how, some way, however, they made everything fit and captured the spectacular night without a hitch, something that Peets says is simply a miracle.
“It is a miracle that this came together.”
To close the behind-the-scenes video, Church ended on one final message:
“I hope that fans, when they see this, think what I want them to see the most [which] is themselves.”
Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive premieres tonight in select IMAX theaters and once again on Saturday, February 14th.
Watch here:
2026 Free the Machine Tour
Feb. 12 || Toronto, Ont. || Scotiabank Arena || Ella Langley
Feb. 13 || Buffalo, N.Y. || KeyBank Center || Ella Langley
Feb. 14 || Albany, N.Y. || MVP Arena || Ella Langley
Feb. 19 || North Little Rock, Ark. || Simmons Bank Arena || 49 Winchester
Feb. 20 || Kansas City, Mo. || T-Mobile Center || 49 Winchester
Feb. 21 || St. Louis, Mo. || Enterprise Center || 49 Winchester
Feb. 26 || Tulsa, Okla. || BOK Center || Stephen Wilson Jr.
Feb. 27 || Fort Worth, Texas || Dickies Arena || Stephen Wilson Jr.
Feb. 28 || Austin, Texas || Moody Center || Stephen Wilson Jr.
Mar. 5 || Knoxville, Tenn. || Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center || 49 Winchester
Mar. 6 || Greensboro, N.C. || First Horizon Coliseum || 49 Winchester
Mar. 7 || North Charleston, S.C. || North Charleston Coliseum || 49 Winchester
Mar. 19 || Birmingham, Ala. || Legacy Arena at the BJCC || 49 Winchester
Mar. 20 || Atlanta, Ga. || State Farm Arena || 49 Winchester
Mar. 27 || Hollywood, Fla. || Hard Rock Live || Kashus Culpepper
Apr. 3 || Greenville, S.C. || Bon Secours Wellness Arena || Ashley McBryde
Apr. 4 || Charlotte, N.C. || Spectrum Center || Ashley McBryde
Apr. 10 || Jacksonville, Fla. || VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena || Ashley McBryde
Apr. 11 || Tampa, Fla. || Benchmark International Arena || Ashley McBryde
