Taking a page from Bruce Springsteen, 'Mr. Misunderstood' artist dazzles with 38-song set at Brooklyn's Barclays Center
"I'm not tired!" Eric Church announced before the start of his encore
during his marathon Friday night show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center. By
the time Church made his hard-to-believe pronouncement, he had already
performed 36 songs over the course of nearly three hours, downed several
shots of Jack Daniel's, paid tribute to Merle Haggard, and led the
sold-out crowd of 19,000 through a generous set spanning the singer's
entire discography.
Just two weeks into his 2017 Holdin' My Own Tour, in which Church
performs two full sets with an intermission and without any opening act,
the 39-year-old singer was in top form and high spirits, joking with
the crowd, signing autographs and alluding to his past decade of touring
through the New York area.
Alongside a smattering of hits and a significant offering from his 2006 debut Sinners Like Me, Church performed the entirety of his 2015 album Mr. Misunderstood,
often backed by light, nearly entirely acoustic arrangements from his
six-piece band. Longtime backup vocalist Joanna Cotten has an increased
role on the current tour, playing a big part in Misunderstood highlights like "Round Here Buzz" and "Kill a Word," the latter of which received one of the strongest responses of the night.
Church's
current tour is an exercise in extreme minimalism, even for Church's
typical no-nonsense standards. The singer has used various dramatic
production elements in the past, from pyrotechnics to, during the
Outsiders Tour, a 40-foot inflatable devil, but the Holdin’ My Own Tour
has nothing of the sort. Indeed, Church went about his headlining set
with a relaxed professionalism, as if he has nothing left to prove apart
from the fact that he remains the most consistently engaging live arena
act in country music.
On Friday, Church put together a 38-song
set of live staples, fan favorites and concert rarities, playing nearly
three hours and 20 minutes (including the intermission). Yet there were
hardly any lulls in the expertly crafted show, largely due to the
versatility of Church's band, which seamlessly shuffled through
blue-eyed soul ("Like a Wrecking Ball"), greasy funk ("Chattanooga
Lucy"), banjo-led bluegrass ("How 'Bout You") and anthemic ballads
("Knives of New Orleans"). He and the band even waded into gospel
territory during the understated opener "Mistress Named Music," which
culminated with a church choir joining Church onstage.
"No matter where you go in the world," the singer said at one point, "don't matter what the genre lines are: Music is music."
The emotional climax of the evening came during the U2 sound-alike
dramatics of "Give Me Back My Hometown," which couldn't help but come
across like a national elegy, as the New York crowd transformed the song
into an aching sing-along. Eight songs later, Church introduced the
main set closer "Springsteen" with some local flavor when he sang a
portion of Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind."
He then
delivered a passionate, extended rendition of "Springsteen," his 2011
signature ode to the Boss, whose own live show serves as a template for
Church's current tour in more ways than one. He concluded his
performance of his Number One single by giving shout-outs to his
favorite Bruce tunes: from the predictable ("Glory Days") to the
impressively obscure ("Brothers Under the Bridge").
Solo acoustic
segments are a staple of arena country shows, but most artists typically
don't wait three hours to begin the most intimate portion of their
concert. Not Church, who kicked off his encore with a loving rendition
of "Holdin' My Own," before delivering the introspective "Sinners Like
Me."
But the singer reserved his most intimate offering for the
very end, closing the evening with an emotional version of "Those I've
Loved," a deep cut off 2009's Carolina. "I'm just a country boy with a guitar," he sang, and the crowd roared louder than they had all night.
No comments:
Post a Comment