Eric Church pays Texas respect, sets Dickies Arena attendance record with 3-hour show
Eric Church may have cut his run through Texas short, but Friday night at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth he seemed intent on making up for it.
The country-rock music star played for nearly three hours to 14,193 in attendance, a record-sized crowd for Dickies Arena since it opened in November 2019.
Church and his six-piece band and backup singer Joanna Cotten ripped through more than 30 songs from an in-the-round stage setup that helped give fans all around the arena a front-row type feeling. Catwalks on each end of the main stage jutted out into general admission pits, where fans were often face to face with Church or a member of the band.
Church took the stage alone with a guitar at 9:10 p.m. and finished the show alone at midnight with the closer “Sinners Like Me,” the title track from his 2006 debut album.
Perhaps knowing he didn’t have a show the next day, Church didn’t hold back. On Monday, he canceled his sold-out Saturday show in San Antonio so that he can attend the NCAA Final Four game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils in New Orleans. The North Carolina native is a hardcore Tar Heels fan and did not want to miss the first ever NCAA Tournament meeting between the teams. Of course, that didn’t go over well with his fans in San Antonio. Church has promised to return and perform a free show in San Antonio in October.
But none of that was Fort Worth’s problem Friday night and Church didn’t mention it.
The first 15 minutes featured Church alone on the stage with his guitar opening with “Mistress Named Music” and turning it into a poignant medley of Texas-themed songs by iconic Texas songwriters. As he blended “Deep In the Heart of Texas” into “Pancho and Lefty” (written by Fort Worth native Townes Van Zandt) to “Texas In My Rear View Mirror” to “Choices,” and Guy Clark’s “L.A. Freeway” he strolled to all four sides of the stage. He moved from Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down” to Keith Gattis’ “El Cerrito Place” to Fort Worth’s own Pat Green’s “Wave on Wave.”
“You know where we’re going now,” Church said as the theme started to reveal itself to the ecstatic crowd which sang along to the classics. “This will last a while. Y’all get comfortable.”
Maybe this was Church’s way of apologizing for the canceled show, or maybe it was because he hadn’t played Texas since 2019. Whatever the reason, Church was paying his respects to Texas singer-songwriters as he closed the 15-minute history lesson with “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)“ and Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes On Forever” before reprising “Mistress Named Music.”
By then, the crowd was beside itself as the rest of the band had taken the stage and was pulsating with the opening chords to Church’s proudly defiant good ole boy anthem “How ‘Bout You.”
For the next two and a half hours, Church and his band kept it moving, musically and physically, shifting from one side of the stage to the other and from one end to the other.
Cotten’s powerful vocals helped underscore Church’s voice throughout the night, and shined on songs such as “Mixed Drinks About Feelings” and “Like Jesus Does.”
Church kept the stage banter scarce, but was interacting with fans near the stage throughout the show, signing pairs of boots during his cowboy boots ode “These Boots” as fans held up boots in solidarity across the arena.
He introduced his hit “Springsteen,” an ode to first loves and the power music has on our memories, with a brief piece of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run.” Church took a moment to underline the meaning of the song and the meaning of the moment with an arena full of people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believe we are all meant to be together,” he said. “I think we’re meant to sing together, share together, worship together. I don’t believe we should be scared of each other. I believe this song is the epitome of that and I thank you very much for being here tonight.”
Eric Church set list at Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, April 1, 2022
1. Mistress Named Music
2. Medley: Deep In the Heart of Texas, Pancho and Lefty, Texas In My Rear View Mirror, Choices, L.A. Freeway, Sunday Morning Coming Down, El Cerrito Place, Wave on Wave, Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love), The Road Goes On Forever.
3. Mistress Named Music (reprise)
4. How ‘Bout You
5. Stick That In Your Country Song
6. Country Music Jesus
7. Heart On Fire
8. Guys Like Me
9. Can’t Take It With You
10. Before She Does
11. Drowning Man
12. Love Your Love the Most
13. Round Here Buzz
14. Drink In My Hand
15. Like A Wrecking Ball
16. Hell of a View
17. Homeboy
18. Smoke a Little Smoke
19. Knives of New Orleans
20. Mixed Drinks About Feelings
21. These Boots
22. Mr. Misunderstood
23. Creepin’
24. Cold One
25. Desperate Man
26. Talladega
27. Jenny
28. Like Jesus Does
29. Give Me Back My Hometown
30. Born to Run (snippet), Springsteen
31. Record Year
32. Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones
33. Sinners Like Me (Carolina snippet)
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 10:13 AM.
