Tyler Childers Sets 3-Night Sold Out Record at Kentucky Arena
Forget that in less than two months from now, Tyler Childers will be taking off on a national arena tour with fellow Kentuckian and producer Sturgill Simpson that is already some 25% sold out, Tyler Childers is selling out arenas on his own right at the moment, at least one near his hometown, and on consecutive nights.
On Friday, December 27th, Tyler Childers played his first of three performances at the Appalachian Wireless Arena in Pikeville, Kentucky, about a 45-minute drive from where the 28-year-old Childers is from in Paintsville. He’ll also play Saturday night (12-28), and then on New Year’s Eve. Despite having a concert seating capacity of 7,000 people (and Pikeville only boasting around 6,900 residents), Tyler Childers has pulled off the feat of selling out all three dates, setting a record for the arena as the highest grossing act to ever play there.
Only a few single obstructed view tickets are left for Saturday night’s show with Sarah Shook and The Disarmers and fellow Kentuckian Chris Knight opening, while some tickets on the resell market for the New Year’s Eve show being opened by Todd Snider are going for over $400 at the moment. Pikeville, Kentucky was so proud of Tyler Childers packing the arena, Mayor Jame A. Carter presented Tyler with a key to the city on Friday. It’s the 2nd key Childers has received from a Kentucky town. In August, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton also presented Childers with the distinction.
Tyler Childers is well-beloved in Kentucky. Last year about this time, Childers used his rising fame and personal money to fund a water drive for residents of Martin County, Kentucky who’ve been going through a water crisis due to contamination issues.
After the Holidays, Tyler Childers will be headed out for a nine day tour in Europe, and then onto Nashville where he will play a four-night residency at the Ryman Auditorium before embarking on A Good Look’n Tour with Sturgill Simpson. Tyler’s song “All Your’n” was recently nominated for Best Country Song by the Grammy Awards.
December 28, 2019 @ 3:10 pm
We were eyeing up tonight’s show when the email notification went out in September. They spelled Chris Knight’s last name “Night” on the emailer and poster. I wrote them to confirm it was Chris Knight and got no response. Then Knight dropped the Pittsburgh date for tomorrow and we opted to go to Detroit to see Tyler. So, it all worked out (and we saved money; some of those packages for these three dates were outrageously expensive). But, it would have been something to see all three tonight. And I love Pikeville.
Trig,
When we saw Tyler a few weeks ago, I was shocked when he played under an hour and a half. A commenter on here recently stated he saw Chris Knight last week and he only played an hour and a half. Both of these tours were promotional tours. On a promotional tour, does the artist make less? Do the venues pay less/ make less because they have an agreement with the label? Do other promotional obligations eat into their stage time? Chris Knight has been doing a ton of radio stops on this tour and I thought maybe that might be the reason he’s doing a shorter set.
December 28, 2019 @ 6:43 pm
That’s a good question, and I have seen others remarking about both Tyler Childers and Chris Knight playing shorter sets. All four times I have seen Tyler it has been at festivals or an opening gig, so I’ve never seen him play for more than an hour. I’m not sure if there is a difference between a “promotional” tour or any other. I wouldn’t see where making an appearance on a radio station in the afternoon would affect the length of the show later that night, or at least it shouldn’t. Unfortunately I don’t have a good answer for you.
December 29, 2019 @ 12:50 am
Tyler played in Memphis in May and played just under 1 hour and 40 minutes as the set is on YouTube. I saw him around the same time in New Orleans and I believe he played around the same amount of time which was enough for me. I like the guy but it all started to sound the same after a while. I find it hard to imagine him playing an arena as his sound does not seem big enough. I’ll find out when he opens for Sturgill in Austin.
December 29, 2019 @ 6:45 am
Yeah, I saw Tyler co-headline with Jamey Johnson this summer, and it was probably about an 80-minute set. That’s enough for me.
I like a lot of Tyler’s songs, but so many of them have the same feel and tempo, it all kinda runs together.
December 29, 2019 @ 8:00 am
Glad we caught his set on Sunset Pier at Mile 0 last year. That and the Charlie Robison tribute were some of the biggest highlights for me.
December 30, 2019 @ 3:42 pm
I hope he learned not to ruin a concert with “everloving hand”, like it ruined his last album