WATCH: Eric Church Delivers Soul-Stirring, Choir-Backed Performance on Night One of Highways Festival 2025

Ahead of Eric Church's opening night at London's Highways Festival 2025, attendees weren't entirely sure what to expect, with The Chief only performing his intimate To Beat The Devil set for a small group of fans at his bar on Nashville's Broadway.

No phones were allowed, meaning we only had rumours about what the show would entail before Church walked - as casually as ever - onto the Royal Albert Hall stage.

Unlike other concerts, where you feel like you've seen 80% of it by the time you get to witness it in person, such is the power of TikTok, Church's Highways set was a total enigma.

As the evening unfolded, it became clear why Church was so keen to keep his set within the confines of the venue, with the ‘Springsteen’ hitmaker regaling attendees with an eclectic array of warm, amusing and downright heartbreaking stories, creating the feel that he was simply chatting with some old friends over a beer.

Few other artists could captivate an entire auditorium for over two hours with a set that prioritised storytelling over music, with Eric Church only reaching for his guitar when a particular tale warranted it. Although there were inevitable moments where some grew restless for a ‘Drink in My Hand’ sing-a-long, but Church kept us in the palm of his hand, weaving together the enchanting anecdotes before sitting back, and revealing the majestic tapestry he had been working towards.

It ebbed and flowed seamlessly, building towards the rousing, soul-stirring crescendo, when Eric Church was joined by his choir for a truly mesmerising rendition of ‘Johnny’.

It capped off the portion of the set when Church held back tears as he touched on the loss of his brother, a life-threatening blood-clot and the 2017 Vegas shooting. He serenaded the crowd to a rare performance of ‘Church Boys’, dedicated to his brother, Brandon, which he'd previously promised to only perform at his Chief's bar.

Eric Church still embodies that refreshing spirit of defiance and anti-establishment angst that coloured his earliest work - but now, it feels as though he is a rebel with a cause, with Church sagely reflecting on the twists and turns of his life with a peaceful maturity. As his faith-filled new album, Evangeline vs. The Machine, and the underlying message behind his To Beat The Devil residency, highlights, Church is still a maverick. The only difference is that now it isn't hell he's raising - rather, he's lifting up spirits and attaining his own form of redemption.

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