Church crushes American Family Field show
Eric Church had been rocking American Family Field for an hour and 25 minutes Saturday when he brought the show to an extended pause.
“You have to forgive me,” Church told the packed Milwaukee Brewers ballpark. “I’m trying to soak this in a little bit.”
Soak away, because this show was special.
Dubbed “One Hell of a Night in Milwaukee,” the one-off concert — coming about a week after the final date of his “Gather Again” arena tour, which included two Green Bay shows just two months ago — marked one of the largest mass gatherings for live music in the city since the pandemic began.
And it was one of the largest crowds Church has ever played for — only the second time in his career that he’s headlined a stadium.
“When we put the ‘Gather Again’ tour on sale city by city, I had a lot of people who were like, ‘Man, what the hell? You’re not coming to Milwaukee?’ ” Church said Saturday. “We’re going to do Milwaukee bigger and better than those other cities.”
With his explosive seven-piece band behind him, Church lived up to his word.
Like his idol Bruce Springsteen, the namesake of one of his biggest songs, Church makes a concert come alive like few others can. He embraces the spontaneous spirit of rock ’n’ roll by switching up the set list night after night.
Sure, there are traditional moments, like fans lifting up their cowboy boots (and on Saturday, a few sneakers) for “These Boots.” But the primary guarantee is that the show’s going to go long — he played for two hours and 10 minutes Saturday, right to the stroke of midnight — and that Church, and his fans, are going to have a hell of a time.
For “Country Music Jesus,” the cool exterior behind those aviator shades transformed into zealous, full-body spasms, like a preacher possessed by the Holy Ghost. During “How ‘Bout You,” he goaded the crowd to sing “I like my country music rockin’, how ‘bout you” loud enough so “Chicago can hear your asses,” and he won points replacing “Dallas” with “Madison” for “Round Here Buzz.”
And Church brought his scathing intensity to the outraged “Stick That in Your Country Song” with the force of a wrecking ball.
For “Drink in My Hand” — which naturally prompted a lot of cup-swinging and booze-splashing across the stadium — Church cracked open and downed the first of two mini Jack Daniels bottles of the night (in addition to generously sipping whatever was in his “Chief” mug). His reaction to the whiskey was akin to Popeye and a can of spinach; it gave even more fire to an already incendiary performance, culminating with the country star mouthing a gleeful F-bomb.
“It was a lot easier to do this at 25 than it is at 45,” Church quipped right after that second bottle of Jack.
He did have a lot of help from the band, which christened “Cold One” Saturday with a hellfire rock intro and some rollicking country-Western swing for the bridge.
The band also brought a swampy, stoner-rock touch to “Smoke a Little Smoke,” which featured a fiery vocal exchange between Church and Joanna Cotten. It was one of several standout moments for the backing singer, who elicited huge cheers for all of her rafterreaching high notes, her talent moving Church to whip out a rare, killer falsetto for “Creepin’ “just to keep up.” For “Give Me Back My Hometown,” Cotten was given free rein for a full verse, and the crowd naturally went nuts.
Following a feast of hair-raising, barn-burning country rock, Church opted to close the set with a wonderfully intimate, and rare, moment — an acoustic performance of “Old Friends, Old Whiskey, Old Songs,” a song he has never recorded in the studio but was recorded live at a Bradley Center show for a compilation in 2017.
And for “Springsteen,” he spent the whole song down in the pit, signing autographs, shaking hands and grabbing the hand of a little girl, who was on her father’s shoulders, so the two of them could dance.
Playing for 30,000-plus people is a hell of a thing. But Church relished those personal moments just as much.
“I didn’t know if we were going to do this again ... just being together, drinking and singing,” Church said in a poignant speech during “Springsteen.” “Since the beginning of time, we’ve always gathered, and we always will.”
And no doubt Church’s fans will gather at a Milwaukee stadium again.
Brothers Osborne, Parker McCollum open
Brothers Osborne were in fighting spirit opening for Church Saturday, but it was a quieter moment halfway through their 55-minute set that was the most powerful.
Frontman T.J. Osborne talked about a transformative time in his life — last year, he became the first male country artist signed to a major record label to reveal that he is gay — leading into the Grammy-winning song “Younger Me.”
“Losing sleep at night/contemplating if it’s worth the fight,” Osbourne movingly sang Saturday, speaking to his younger self, and essentially anyone afraid to come out. “If he only knew he’d be all right.”
The song’s a quiet trailblazer for country music, but for Brothers Osborne, it’s par for the course.
Like Church, Brothers Osborne play by their own rules, turning the defianceembracing “I’m Not For Everyone” into a stadiumwide singalong. The sinning and grinning “It Ain’t My Fault” incorporated devil-may-care space funk keyboards, followed by John Osborne sprinting down the catwalk for his own fiery blues and funk guitar solo, a striking skill set he also used Saturday to spice up “Headstones,” “Shoot Me Straight” and “Stay a Little Longer.”
Early in his half-hour set, Parker McCollum talked about being at American Family Field last summer for a Brewers game, when the home team won 7-3. (It must have been their faceoff with the Nationals last August.)
McCollum, unfortunately, didn’t have such a victory in the ballpark Saturday. The nuances in his songs, both lyrical and musical, contributed to his win as new male artist of the year at the ACM Awards this spring. But Saturday on that stadium stage, a bland McCollum failed to convey the damaged love and self-sabotage he sings about, and that make him so promising.