Fans who expected Eric Church to perform a rowdy set filled with iconic hits were left scratching their heads — or expressing feelings of anger and frustration — this weekend at the Stagecoach Festival.

The country star headlined Friday night at the prestigious event in Indio, California. But Church’s 75-minute show was a sedate acoustic affair that belied his reputation as a rollicking star who can raise a beer and rock the house with the best of ‘em.

“After a lengthy church organ played as the intro, Church appeared seated on a stool in front of stunning set of red stained glass windows on the production screen and began playing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ before he was joined by backing vocalists for ‘Mistress Named Music,’ then a choir for ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’ ‘This Little Light Of Mine,’ ‘When The Saints Go Marching In,’ ‘I’ll Fly Away,’ ‘I Saw The Light’ and more,” said Brian Blueskye, a reporter for the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

“The unplugged jam session sent festivalgoers for the exit of the Empire Polo Club starting about 15 minutes in, a sight that could be best described as Moses parting the Red Sea,” Blueskye said. “It was a surprising move by Church, considering his recent setlists appear to be in line with the type of show many were probably expecting him to perform.”

Church, 46, has plenty of barn-burners in his catalog, including “Smoke a Little Smoke,” “Beer in My Hand,” “Hell of a View,” “Talladega,” “Bad Mother Trucker,” “Springsteen” and more. But his Stagecoach set, which held nearly 30 songs, was focused on covers — many of them gospel-oriented, but also tunes such as “Danny’s Song,” ” I Am … I Said,” “California Love” and “Gin and Juice.”

Although Church did toss in a rendition of “Springsteen” as a closer at Stagecoach, it evidently was too little, too late for many folks in attendance.

“While I was excited when he did finally play a slightly understated version of ‘Springsteen’ to close the show, even that had a certain ‘here’s one little hit, as a treat’ quality that felt off-putting and possibly even insulting,” said Paul Albani-Burgio of USA Today. “Furthermore, it was distracting to spend so much of the set wondering where it was going (and not really in a good way), so in the very least Church, who only spoke about four words to the crowd, could’ve at least taken some time to explain some of his thinking at some point.”

As it turns out, Church was making some deliberate artistic choices with his Stagecoach set, and his primary goal at the festival wasn’t to be a crowd-pleaser. Several news outlets, including Billboard and Variety, have reported that the country star issued a statement after the show that said:

“This was the most difficult set I have ever attempted. I’ve always found that taking it back to where it started, back to chasing who Bob Seger loves, who Springsteen loves, who Willie Nelson loves, you chase it back to the origin. The origin of all that is still the purest form of it. And we don’t do that as much anymore. It felt good at this moment to go back, take a choir and do that.

“For me, it’s always been something with records, with performances, I’ve always been the one that’s like, ‘let’s do something really, really strange and weird and take a chance.’ Sometimes it doesn’t work, but it’s okay if you’re living on that edge, because that edge, that cutting edge, is where all the new guys are going to gravitate to anyway. So if you can always challenge yourself that way, it always cuts sharper than any other edge.”

It’s unclear if Church will opt for a similar set in Alabama this summer when he appears as a headliner at Rock the South, but he’s been known to defy conventions before. Church invoked fan ire with his short setlist at the 2023 CMA Fest, for example, playing revised arrangements of his songs with a new configuration of his band.

Church’s Stagecoach show quickly inspired a social media controversy over the weekend, with polarized fans weighing in on the flaws or virtues of his performance. While many sounded outraged or disappointed, other fans applauded Church for stepping outside the box and following his personal muse.

“The 70,000 festival attendees will definitely not lack for anything to talk, or argue, about for the rest of the weekend,” Variety said, “and the debate will also continue among the many more fans who watched the livestream on Prime Video and Amazon’s Twitch channel.”

Here’s a sampling of fan reactions:

“Worst set ever Eric Church!!! People paid a lot of money to see you, and you brought this garbage!!!! Booooo!!!!” Josh Henderson said on Facebook.

“You people obviously don’t have much experience with or know his live shows. Chief has always marched to the beat of his own drum, and no two of his shows are alike,” @MattSteffy4 said on X (formerly Twitter). “He also doesn’t do a cookie cutter greatest hits concert. He does covers, deep cuts etc.”

“I love Eric Church but that set was a HUGE disappointment,” said Amy Dawn on Facebook. “Not sure who approved that set list but I hope y’all learn from this one to never let that happen again. We pay too much money to see these headliners and we want to hear their songs. That was just insane last night, never seen so many people walk out of a concert in all the years I’ve been coming to Stagecoach.”

“I watched it the live stream and it was one of my favorite performances of Eric’s!!! I hope he puts an album out like that or with the same songs! It was so good!” said @mfeeman88 on Instagram.

“How do I get a refund from you for that disaster of a show last night at stagecoach?” @campbellelynuik said on Instagram.

“Eric Church was incredible! Unexpected and execution was awesome. Those gospel singers are talented! Loved every minute of it,” said Danielle DeRose on Facebook.

“MorganWallen could walk out Sunday, throw a chair off the stage and leave. It would still be better than @ericchurch was tonight at @Stagecoach,” @CoopScoops_8 said on X.

“That Eric Church set at Stagecoach was incredible. So naturally everybody hated it,” said @_AaronRyan on X.

“Jelly Roll should’ve been the headliner,” Amber Sanchez said on Facebook. “He had us up and ready to go then everyone walked out with Eric taking us to church. Not cool. Yes he can sing but no one at Stagecoach wanted to be in church, drunk on a Friday night.”

“I loved it thoroughly, Eric basically had Church with small choir and some of the best gospel singers I’ve heard,” Steve Nelson said on Facebook. “All of his performance was wonderful, heartfelt and full of content, however far from his typical hits. The festival fans showed their disapproval to his gospel theme set by leaving early, but not me. He included Kenny Loggins, Neil Diamond, Journey and closed out the night with only one of his most recent hits. I loved that he took creative risk. Somewhat surprised his fans were quick to dump him over what I thought Eric was known for, pushing boundaries and showing artistic freedom. The musician, backup singers and Eric put on a great show.”

“Wrong place wrong time. Two thumbs down for me,” @fred_castro_777 said on Instagram.