Back in 2006, Eric Church was grinding it out on his Me & Myself Tour.
It was not long after he had released his debut album, Sinners Like Me, and he had been invited to no longer be a part of the biggest country music tour in the world at the time – which is a nice way of saying Rascal Flatts had kicked him off their Me & My Gang Tour because he couldn’t follow the rules. So Church decided that he was still going to follow the tour around the country, playing rock clubs in the same cities as Rascal Flatts and calling it the Me & Myself Tour.
And last night, he managed to turn the 9,500-seat Red Rocks Amphitheatre into one of those rock clubs once again, celebrating 20 years since the release of his debut album with a show that may have only been familiar to those who were lucky enough to see him in those early days – a show that dusted off not only the melodies from two decades earlier, but all the memories they’d created along the way.
As we were sitting there waiting for Church to take the stage, everybody around me was trying to guess what song he was going to open with. “Record Year?” “Hands of Time” like he did on his Free the Machine Tour? I turned around with my prediction: “Before She Does,” the very first song from Sinners Like Me.
One guy said, “I like you, you’re a little crazy.”
Well apparently so is Eric Church, because that’s exactly what he launched into after taking the stage.
Church promised early in the night that it was going to be a unique show, and that he and the band would be reaching back into the catalog and playing songs they hadn’t played in years – decades even, with some making an appearance on the setlist for the first time since those rock club days.
And there were signs that he hadn’t played some of these songs in a while: At one point he came in too early during the opening song and the band had to catch up. There were forgotten lyrics a couple of times throughout the night. But it wasn’t perfect in those early days either, which made it perfect for last night.
Throughout the night, Church played every single song from the Sinners Like Me album, dusting off deep cuts like “Can’t Take It With You,” “What I Almost Was” and “The Hard Way.” But what I quickly realized, as did everybody else in that iconic venue, was that he was also dusting off memories, some of which had long since faded with the help of time (and probably some alcohol).
Last night though, the memories came flooding back. When he played “Guys Like Me,” I was sitting back in the amphitheater on the river in Huntington, West Virginia, watching Church for the very first time. As he struck up “Livin’ Part of Life,” I was back in my 2006 Jeep cruising around my college town blasting that song with my best friend Adam – who happened to be standing beside me last night. When he played “These Boots” I was taken back to last year’s show at Red Rocks, when Eddie sitting a few seats down from me kept requesting it the entire show. I hope Eddie was there again last night to hear it.
And as he sang “Two Pinks Lines”…well, I’ll keep that memory to myself.
Along with the songs from Sinners Like Me, he also threw in unreleased fan-favorite “Julia,” a song that he recalled playing at the Grizzly Rose here in Denver and which he said still gets requested during meet and greets but that he hadn’t played in over a decade. And he even dipped back into his Caldwell County EP for “My Heart’s Got A Memory” – but not before saying a little prayer first.
Then there were the covers, songs that were staples of his early shows when he didn’t have enough original material to fill an entire headlining set. He broke out a cover of “If You Want To Get To Heaven” by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and “The Shape I’m In” by The Band, which he frequently cites as the greatest band of all time.
The showstopper, though, came when he and his background vocalist Joanna Cotten put their harmonies together for a rowdy cover of “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen.
@whiskeyriff @Eric Church #whiskeyriff
It was a show unlike any other I’ve seen from Church, at least in the last two decades. It was uniquely Eric Church: Who else plays a show that doesn’t feature any song less than 10 years old? (The newest song he played was “Record Year,” from his 2015 Mr. Misunderstood album, and that came during the encore after 2 hours of songs that were all released before 2009).
It may have been a show that wasn’t for everyone, maybe not even everyone at Red Rocks last night. If you were hoping to hear the hits like “Drink In My Hand” and “Talladega,” you were probably disappointed.
But if you’ve been with Church from the beginning, from the days of those rock clubs and chasing a dream, it was a show that no doubt connected his melodies with your own memories from all those years ago.
I can’t wait to see what he’s got planned for night 2. We’ll see you there.
Red Rocks Night 1 Setlist
1. Before She Does
2. How ‘Bout You/(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction/Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way/Black Betty
3. Sinners Like Me
4. Can’t Take It With You
5. Guys Like Me
6. These Boots
7. The Shape I’m In
8. My Heart’s Got A Memory
9. Lightning
10. If You Want To Get To Heaven
11. Livin’ Part of Life
12. Lotta Boot Left To Fill
13. What I Almost Was
14. Two Pink Lines
15. The Hard Way
16. Julia
18. Fat Bottomed Girls
19. Pledge Allegiance To The Hag
20. Those I’ve Loved
Encore:
21. Cold One
22. Record Year
23. Springsteen
24. Smoke A Little Smoke
25. Like Jesus Does
