Eric Church set to light up Saturday night

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This article was published 01/10/2021 (1778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saturday night might just be a return to the Winnipeg as it used to be.

Over the past 18 months, there have been many small shows at outdoor venues or in clubs around the city, but few things turn music fans on more than when a big-time artist arrives for an arena show.

That moment arrives Saturday when Eric Church, the Country Music Association’s reigning entertainer of the year, brings his Gather Again Tour to Canada Life Centre.

Church and his tour trucks will drive north after their show Friday night in Grand Forks, N.D., and set up a giant stage that will be the centrepiece of an in-the-round concert. It will have multiple levels and is about 2,400 square feet in area, according to Rolling Stone.

“It’s kind of like a cage match,” he told the magazine after a rehearsal. “I mean once we get out there the crowd is everywhere. They’re behind you, they’re on the sides, and I love that.”

Four large video walls and a lighting setup that weighs 57.6 tonnes will make sure everyone in the arena gets a good look at the Nashville-based performer when he sings hits such as Drink in My Hand, Bring Back My Hometown or Springsteen, which has been Church’s closer in his three previous visits to Winnipeg, in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

That was the year he made his first Manitoba appearance, at Dauphin’s Countryfest, and Rob Waloschuk, the event’s general manager remembers the debut well.

“Somebody had cancelled on us and we needed somebody for the second-to-close spot before Toby Keith, and we ended up picking Eric Church,” Waloschuk says. “Of course, his history from there went skyrocketing and he ended up being the (Countryfest) headliner in 2018 along with Florida Georgia Line.”

Church had only a couple of singles that were near the top of country charts in the summer of 2011 — Springsteen didn’t hit it big until 2012 — but Waloschuk could see there were big things ahead for the singer.

“Watching his live performance and following him a bit more after that I’m not surprised he rose to what he is today, a major headliner,” he says.

“His show is very intense, very entertaining, of course, and he’s a great performer. We’ll have him back again someday, I’m sure.”

Saturday’s might wind up being Church’s most memorable Manitoba show yet, owing to the many pandemic-related obstacles that have been cleared or that have been managed so that he can take the stage in Winnipeg.

Firstly, there’s no way the show could go on without the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and the acceptance of the shots by the majority of Manitobans. Like all performances in Manitoba, anyone who wants to see the show must provide proof of being fully vaccinated, such as the province’s vaccination card or QR code. Masks are also mandatory.

Almost as important is Canada’s decision in the summer to open the border to Americans, including Church and his many tour trucks and roadies.

The Church show is the only concert scheduled for Canada Life Centre for the rest of 2021 — for now — but the concert experiences, for both the fans and personnel at True North Sports and Entertainment, which owns the arena, will provide valuable experience for what appears will be a busy 2022.

Already booked for the arena are: The Weeknd (Jan. 19); the Glorious Sons (Feb. 10); Céline Dion (March 14); Rage Against the Machine (May 11) and Toby Keith (July 22).

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The concert scene in the city’s smaller venues in October is blossoming to the point it almost resembles a pre-pandemic October.

The Burton Cummings Theatre hosts three Winnipeg Comedy Festival galas Oct. 7, 8 and 9, but also welcomes California rockers Buckcherry on Oct. 15 and American punk group All Time Low on Halloween night.

New shows were added to the Burt agenda earlier this week, with Manitoba singer and children’s TV legend Fred Penner playing an afternoon show on Dec. 12 and Ontario alt-rock group Billy Talent headlining two nights, Feb. 7 and 8, 2022. Tickets for both shows go on sale today at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster.

Club Regent Event Centre returns to the concert game Oct. 23 with Streetheart, but has a busy November with Portage country duo Doc Walker (Nov. 5); B.C. country group the Washboard Union (Nov. 12); Harlequin and Lee Aaron (Nov. 19); and Gordon Lightfoot (Nov. 21) playing the Transcona casino venue.

The newly renovated Park Theatre kicks off its reopening with a bang with Winnipeg thrashers Propagandhi playing a three-night residency Oct. 8-10. Tickets ($31.16 at myparktheatre.com) were still available for the Oct. 8 show at press time, while the other two nights are sellouts.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall