One Night Only

Outside Chief’s on Tuesday night, with a light rain falling on Broadway, it was obvious something big was happening inside.

A larger than normal number of onlookers were milling around the sidewalk. Tickets were being closely checked. It’s not unusual to have Eric Church in the building. He’s already been on stage at Chief’s over two dozen times since it opened in April of 2024, with numerous other unscheduled—and unpredictable—appearances at the bars on the first and second floors.

But this one was different. SiriusXM brought together Church’s full band for a one night only performance.

The show aired live on Outsiders Radio and will be rebroadcast multiple times during this weekend’s Y2Kountry (Ch. 57) satellite radio takeover.

It also enabled the building to show off how versatile it can be. There is constant live music at Chief’s. That was nothing new.

But a full band Eric Church show is a different size production, and crew members had arrived before 6 a.m. Tuesday morning to make sure setup went flawlessly. Much like the artists on stage, they’ve grown accustomed to working in more vast arenas. But most also have plenty of experience learning how to do the job in smaller, 400-seat rooms like the Neon Steeple.

For the 23 Church residency shows, the Steeple was a seated venue with assigned tickets. On this night, though, it was a standing room only room that felt more like a club, with the fans farthest from the stage still close enough for Church to flip a guitar pick into the last rows of the balcony after one song.

But as soon as Jeff Hyde hit the first banjo notes of “How Bout You,” everyone in the Neon Steeple knew for certain they were at an Eric Church show. Which meant they also knew he wasn’t going to simply play a dozen hits and call it a night. It would’ve been very easy to play the songs everyone—including the band—knows the best and head home.

Easy has never been how this is done.

Because every detail in Chief’s has been carefully and lovingly considered, the stained glass windows at the Neon Steeple aren’t just any stained glass. They’re influences selected by Church himself who, as he said, “made me who I am.”

So he wanted Tuesday’s one-time-only show to be a one-time-only salute to those influences.

“There will be some forgiveness necessary if this doesn’t work out,” Church joked about the show’s structure.

There will be no apologies necessary. With Church’s explanation, it made sense how singing “Country Boy Can Survive” around a campfire 30 years ago might have turned into “Homeboy.”

Church has owned Broadway in 2024. If you combine this show with the “To Beat the Devil” residency and the Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit from this spring, you have a very accurate picture of who he is and how he got here.

Or you can just listen to the music he played on Tuesday night. Because there’s a story there, too.

(The one night only full band show will re-air on SiriusXM Y2Kountry Ch. 57 on Nov. 22 at 5 pm ET, Nov. 23 at 7 pm ET, and Nov. 24 at 1 pm ET. It is also available to stream on the SiriusXM app).