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11/17/24 residency show

One More Time

Sunday is why Chief’s has six floors.

Every single one of them was needed to contain a mid-November Sunday on Broadway.

It started before the building even opened. The Minnesota Vikings were in town to play the Tennessee Titans, and a long line of purple snaked down Second Avenue before the doors to Chief’s opened at 11 a.m. Church Choir, meet the Skoldiers.

I recently had a conversation with an NFL player who spent almost a decade in the league. When asked the best gameday environment, both he and his wife instantly responded, “Minnesota.”

Then she added, “And they travel, too.”

Do they ever. But you’re thinking “travel” in terms of a team issued polo shirt and some jeans. You need to change your perspective. When Vikings fans travel, they very well might be wearing some sort of full-on Viking outfit, complete with an animal skin cloak (worn shirtless, obviously), a horned helmet, and a dress that I am absolutely certain they would be offended if you called a dress.

That’s the kind of morning it was at Chief’s. By the time the purple-clad throng cleared out for the noon kickoff a mile away across the river, the fun was really just starting. There were line tattoos and custom hats, a recent addition on residency days that have been a massive hit.

It is entirely possible they are a massive hit because the hats are customizable, and one residency show attendee took the opportunity to get the front of his hat emblazoned with “Drink a Lil Drink” with the back featuring, you guessed it, “Smoke a Lil Smoke.” This is Chief’s, folks.

There were Christmas decorations on the second floor and the world’s best barbecue from Rodney Scott on five and six and, oh yeah, there was also the final of 23 residency shows in the Neon Steeple. This is his building but this is also very much his town. Walking down Broadway on Sunday night, the hostess at the Twelve Thirty Club—owned by Justin Timberlake—was wearing an Eric Church shirt.

To see the real thing, though, you had to score the coveted tickets to the residency show. From the first one way back in April through Sunday night, it has been a constantly evolving product, because that’s the only way he knows how to do it. It was great on the first night…Church wasn’t happy until it was stunning.

So even on the final night, he was prone to making last-second adjustments. At the penultimate show on Wednesday, he said he didn’t plan to play “Darkest Hour” again at the residency. But it made one last appearance at Sunday’s show. He’s earned the right to make a few tweaks to the set list. As Church noted during an exchange with a fan, “It’s my building, so I can say what I want.”

It was an evening that perhaps even more than usual had his toes hanging off the ledge. After one side comment, he flashed a grin and said, “My wife is going to hate that I said that.”

But the crowd didn’t mind.

It’s incredible, really, that through 23 shows the residency has remained largely spoiler-free. That preserves moments like Sunday night’s performance of an original song that he’s so far only done at Chief’s—every single time he sings it, it gets a massive response. Sunday, it was greeted with a loud and long standing ovation; it’s an incredibly powerful song, but springing it on an unsuspecting audience that hasn’t watched videos on YouTube or read reviews describing the moment makes it even more emotional. You are getting that song, that moment, only within these four walls. It doesn’t live anywhere else, not on your phone or on your computer, and that realization seems to bond the crowd.

After most of the residency shows, Church has done a couple handshakes on his way off the stage. This time, though, he took the time to shake every front row fan’s hand, as if he was savoring one last solo appearance (he will be back at the Neon Steeple for a one-of-a-kind SiriusXM performance with the full band) where his trademark aviators are inlaid in the wood that forms the stage.

It was the perfect capstone to an only-at-Chief’s type of day, from Skol to Springsteen. The fact that all of these adventures happen, daily, on this corner of Second and Broadway is remarkable.

He’ll figure out a way to come back here. He’s having too much fun not to and, as he said, it’s his building. The clues were in what he said when he began the night: “Welcome to the last show of this residency at Chief’s.”

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