Eric Church releases spectacular IMAX live concert movie and ‘soundtrack’ double album

Related Stories

Lainey Wilson Reigns Supreme, Ella Langley & Riley Green Sweep Three as Women and New Blood Dominate 2025 CMA Awards

Evangeline Vs The Machine Comes Alive lives up to it’s title

Most music fans would agree that ‘live’ music is best experienced ‘live’ – that is, being in the audience with hundreds (or thousands) of fellow fans, feeling the music enveloping you from the stage. Most concert movies cannot capture that ‘special something’ that was enjoyed by the audience members who were actually there when it happened.

If you’re saying ‘amen’ to the above statement, there’s a current movie that might make you reconsider.

Eric Church’s Evangeline Vs The Machine Comes Alive is a unique entertainment event. There’s barely a pause for a few brief words to the audience from the stage and none of the usual backstage footage. The focus is entirely on the music and the ‘suite’ of stories that the music conveys. The movie, directed by Reid Long and shot over two nights at The Pinnacle in Nashville, officially released February 13 exclusively at IMAX theaters and it takes full advantage of IMAX’s twelve-channel sound system and unparalleled image quality and scale to deliver a matchless musical experience.

• PHOTO: A screen cap from the movie. Note the camera operators are dressed in hazmat suits like the characters seen in the stage projections!

Coinciding with the movie’s release, Church releases a 19-track album to compliment the premiere.  Listen/save/download Evangeline vs. The Machine: Comes Alive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) via MCA here. 

"This live album is special." says Church. "It has been a while since the band and I had played a large club like the Pinnacle. Those two nights were electric. And listening back, the magic of those nights has definitely been captured."

The IMAX movie (and the soundtrack album) capture Church’s live performance of his Grammy-nominated eighth studio album played front-to-back followed by several fan favorites such as “Desperate Man,” “Sinners Like Me” and “Springsteen.” The songs are ‘reimagined’ with a 6-piece band, 4-piece horns, 4-piece strings, 8-piece choir and vocalist Joanna Cotten all backing 10X-Grammy nominee Church. The musical spectacular is enhanced by projected images that encompass the entire stage area, illustrating the music suite’s progressing storyline.*

The movie and live album release arrived amidst Church’s ongoing Free the Machine Tour currently scheduled to wrap April 11 in Tampa, FL, followed by dates that include a stop at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium June 27 as part of Alan Jackson’s Last Call: One More for the Road – The Finale.  Find tour and ticket details here.

In summary, both the IMAX movie and the accompanying soundtrack album provide a unique musical experience for listeners and viewers beyond The Chief’s Church Choir fan base. Find more about Eric Church at his website here.

The limited theatrical movie release is a first-ever partnership among IMAX, MCA, Mercury Studios and Q Prime South, the artist management group led by John Peets.

*Full disclosure: The illustrations projected on the performance and seen in the movie were all the work of my husband Michael Harris whose illustrations were also used for all the official Evangeline Vs The Machine music videos. You can see some of the original drawings and screen caps here.