Eric Church Brings the “Free The Machine Tour” to Toronto, ON [Photos]

After releasing his eighth studio album in May 2025, Eric Church announced his “Free The Machine Tour” that would see him travel across America and Canada in 2026, joined by select openers on certain dates.

Toronto’s opener was Ella Langley, an artist who could headline the arena by herself and proved it by filling up the stadium early in the night for her set. With her country twang, she made Toronto fall in love with her.

Ella Langley’s set ended at 8:15 pm, with Eric Church’s set planned to start at 8:45 pm. But if you know anything about Eric Church, you know that didn’t happen. At 9:00 pm, Church bells rang, and Pink Floyd began playing as the screens showed a psychological horror-type short film that had the audience confused. At 9:15 pm, the band took the stage. Twenty-three people, including an entire band and an orchestra.

Shortly after everyone else took the stage, Eric Church came out with “Hands Of Time,” the first song off of his Evangeline vs. The Machine album, released the year prior. In fact, songs one to eight were the entirety of the new album, with a Tom Waits cover ending that part of the set.

Eric Church has a different setlist for every show; the only thing that has stayed consistent during the “Free The Machine Tour” was the first eight songs are the entire album. Song nine kicked Toronto into overdrive with “Desperate Man” being played early in the set.

The most popular way to travel to Scotiabank Arena is using the GO Train, which Eric Church made sure the fans knew they weren’t getting on that last train, and would have to take the buses that run later in the night. Luckily for fans, GO Train delayed the last train of the night by 15 minutes, allowing fans to quickly get out of the arena and hop on the train back home.

Toronto was having a karaoke session as Eric Church ran through all of his hits in a row. After “Give Me Back My Hometown” at song 14, he played his first cover of the show. Letting the crowd know that Canada’s The Band was one of his favourite bands, and honoured them well with his cover of “Ophelia” with a Canadian flag, and a Canadian flag with a weed symbol around his neck.

As mentioned earlier, Eric Church was joined by a 23-person band. His explanation for having such an extravagant amount of musicians was that the goal for the “Free The Machine Tour” was to fight back against the need for backing tracks, lip syncing, and using technology to replace something humans can do. Eric Church has been no stranger to having choirs in his tracks; for example, the outro of “Mistress Named Music” has a beautiful part featuring a choir, and it’s just as good hearing it in person on this tour as it is on a turntable.

Later in the show, the choir and strings left the stage. Breaking it down to just the main Eric Church Band. This is where they took advantage of all the electric rock-like songs. This segment of the set allowed the guitar solos to take the spotlight, and wow, did they ever.

After a few songs with the core band, the show was broken down even more. The night was getting late, and the show was taking an acoustic route with Eric Church and Joanna Cotten doing duets together, with nothing but one acoustic guitar.

Song 29, the final song of the night, was “Through My Ray-Bans.” After the acoustic duo, everybody came back out. The band, the choir, and the strings, everybody was back on stage for one last time for the night and left the stage with the energy through the roof.

Eric Church’s “Free The Machine Tour” is easily the greatest concert I’ve ever seen in my life. Bringing a massive choir and band is severely uncommon, but for a country artist like Eric Church, it should be something that happens every tour. The synergy between all musicians on stage was very clear, and everybody had a chance to showcase what they could do in front of a packed house.

Eric Church has been one of the biggest artists in country music, and he brings a massive show with him. With more than half of the dates on the “Free The Machine Tour” happening throughout February to April, fans have ample opportunity to purchase tickets for upcoming shows, and if they want to be blown away, they should buy them.