Eric Church is gearing up for his headlining The Gather Again Tour in-the-round which opens this Friday, September 17th in Lexington, KY.<\/p>\n
After many rehearsals, Eric has now made himself at home on the 2,400 square foot multi-level stage, which will be positioned in the center of each arena floor and accompanied by 11 busses, 20 trucks, a 127,000-pound lighting rig and four 836 square foot video walls.<\/p>\n
Eric said the hard part so far has been determining the setlist to include songs from his latest project, Heart & Soul.<\/p>\n
“The hardest thing I\u2019ve done thus far in my career is this setlist. It\u2019s not a normal record; it\u2019s three, so you add 28 songs to what we already had going, which is a pretty stacked and packed setlist, and when you start to try to get rid of stuff and change it every night \u2013 which I\u2019m committed to; we\u2019re still going to play the different set, we\u2019re going to give people different experiences \u2013 it has been maddening.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Another challenge for Eric is the stage itself.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve never played a stage like this in my career… I\u2019ve never seen anybody play one like this. There\u2019s really no front\u2026 It\u2019s kind of like a cage match. I mean once we get out there the crowd is everywhere. They\u2019re behind you, they\u2019re on the sides, and I love that\u2026. The reason it\u2019s called The Gather Again Tour is we want people on top of us, and they will be.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n