Eric
Church / Double Down Tour
(September
13, 2019) Resch Center, Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA
YOU CAN
BE A COWBOY ON THE MOON
“How ya
feeling’ Green Bay? Welcome to Night One!” said Eric Church after admittedly
shaking off some rust in the first two songs. It’s been nearly three months
since he finished the first leg of his highly successful Double Down Tour.
As the
full moon hung over Resch Center on Friday the 13th, fans filed in and were
ready and willing to enjoy the show and forget about everyday life during the
nearly 3-hour show. Green Bay is the kickoff show for his second leg of the
tour. “There’s a reason we started the second leg in Green Bay,” he adds. “This
has always been one of my favorite towns and my favorite people.”
LEAVE
MY WILLIE ALONE
The
bulk of my experiences with country music revolved heavily around Hank
Williams, Jr in the late 80s through the mid-90’s and I always respected how he
carried the torch as a country outlaw. Being new to Eric Church (admittedly I’m
more of a rock & roll guy), I hadn’t realized how he also pays tribute to
the great ones like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. Whether it’s
through songs, “The Outsiders,” “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag,” or by taking
time to autograph albums of Waylon and Merle during the song “Record Year.”
One
YouTuber’s comment summed it up best: “If you knew anything at all about Eric
Church you would know he’s been fist pumping and stomping since day one. It’s
great to see someone who actually feels and loves their music as much as he
does. That is why he is puts on the best live show night in and night out
throughout all music, not just country.”
When
you really start parsing his music, especially live, you can hear his wide
influence of music from classic country to pop and even heavy metal. It’s all
right there in the lyrics, “I played her everything from Material Girl,
All of my Skynyrd and Merle, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Yea tried like
hell to hook her on the Man in Black; She wasn’t havin’ any of that.”
THAT’S
DAMN ROCK & ROLL
I was
foolish to think this was ‘just a country show’ as songs like ‘
Before She
Does,’ ‘and ‘Lotta Boot to Fill’
stand on their own as rock/metal tunes.
‘Over
When It’s Over’
might very well be country’s version of Paradise By The
Dashboard Light from Meat Loaf. Believe
me, Ms. Joanna Cotten is an amazing live complement to Eric Church and those
two going back and forth during this song had a real wow factor.
As they
shredded into
‘Lotta Boot Left To Fill,’
I was actually envisioned Eric
Church and his band jamming side by side with the members of Metallica. There
was
definitely
some
‘For
Whom the Bell Tolls’
influence in that one! Lastly, the
fan-favorite
‘Smoke A Little Smoke’
ended with an appropriate riff of
Black Sabbath’s
‘
Sweat
Leaf’
sprinkled in for good measure.
If you
want to introduce someone to Eric Church’s music, I suggest offering up his
2013’s
Caught in the Act
. His essence and energy is
really best captured live. When the band cuts loose, and cranks up the amps,
they deliver something that could
never
be captured in a studio setting.
CONNECTING
MELODY TO MEMORY
“Funny
how a melody sounds like a memory, like the soundtrack to a Green Bay Friday Night.”
he sings custom lyrics to the Church Choir as he shakes hands and weaves his
way down in the pit during ‘
Springsteen.’
“This is what music is about.
It’s all about right here, right now. That’s what music does. It freezes this
moment in time forever.”
As he
wrapped up the song and headed back stage a fan asked him a questioning his
reply was simple: “Im not done…im not frickin;’ done!” And he
isn’t
done. He’s not done making music and he’s got one more night on this Green Bay
stop. Saturday evening’s show will be
another
moment in time, just like
Friday’s, only different. Special. Frozen in time. Committed to memory. And a
completely unique experience to you.
Get the music
Eric
Church – Desperate Man
Available
on
iTunes
and on vinyl at
Amazon
Band Members
Eric
Church – Artist
Driver
Williams – Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar
Jeff
Cease – Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar
Jeff
Hyde – Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Background Vocals
Lee
Hendricks– Bass Guitar
Craig
Wright – Drums
Joanna
Cotten – Vocals
Remaining Dates
Sept.
20 &
21 Calgary,
Alberta || Scotiabank Saddledome
Sept.
28
San Francisco, Calif. || Chase Center
Oct. 4
&
5
Grand Rapids, Mich. || Van Andel Arena
Oct. 11
&
12
Philadelphia, Pa. || Wells Fargo Center
Oct.
25
Little Rock, Ark. || Verizon Arena
Oct.
26
Birmingham, Ala. || Legacy Arena at the BJCC
Nov.
1
Manchester, N.H. || SNHU Arena
Nov.
2
Hartford, Conn. || XL Center
Nov. 15
&
16 Washington, D.C. || The Anthem
Nov. 22
&
23 Sacramento, Calif. || Golden 1 Center
ABOUT
ERIC CHURCH
The
three-time Country Music Association and six-time Academy of Country Music
Award winner released his highly-anticipated album
Desperate Man
atop
the
Billboard
Country Albums chart in October 2018. The
album also debuted at No. 5 on the all-genre
Billboard
200.
Rolling
Stone
describes the album in their July 2018 cover story as “classic
Church: expertly crafted and country-radio-friendly, while also pushing
boundaries in a way that sounds natural and unforced” and
American
Songwriter
notes in a cover story that it “sublimates the pain of a
tumultuous year into his most adventuresome album yet.” Church has returned to
the road for his 2019
Double Down Tour,
visiting nearly 30
markets for back-to-back nights of two unique shows sans-opening act to give
fans 6+ hours of his iconic music in each city. The tour also included a
massive stop at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, where Church broke the venue’s
concert attendance record with 56,521 fans and nearly tripled the attendance
record he set at Bridgestone Arena in 2017.
