Old Dominion closes No Bad Vibes tour in Nashville, raises over $40K for tornado relief

Old Dominion wrapped up the band's year-long No Bad Vibes tour at a sold-out Bridgestone Arena Friday night with an energetic, upbeat run through a slew of their hit songs and even took a few requests. But as the show progressed, it seemed the band wasn't quite ready for the tour to be over.

Wearing an H&M jacket bought for a showcase at legendary Nashville live music venue 12th and Porter years before the band had achieved success, lead singer Matthew Ramsey told the crowd he wanted to just stand back and take in the moment.

"I hope you don't mind if we just stare at you for a little while cause this is a crazy one for us," he said from the stage. "When we were kids and we moved to Nashville, we could have never imagined seeing something so spectacular like this. This is beyond our wildest dreams that we get to come here and create music together.

"I don't know if you can tell, but we are really good friends and we have been friends for a long time and we get to make music together," he continued. "If you are out there and you are a musician or a writer, find your friends and start a damn band. Do it together. and then come out on the road with us. Thank you all so much. by listening to our music you are making our dreams come true."

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The show had minimal frills beyond a catwalk stage, some lighting and large video screens, which put the focus on the music, the musicians and the messages that fill their songs. Country singer Megan Moroney joined the band for a duet of "Can't Break Up Now," but beyond that, the show didn't rely on surprises, but leaned firmly on a strong catalog of songs, musical prowess and genuine appreciation.

The band played for two solid hours rolling through hits spanning their five-album career including, "Make It Sweet," "No Hard Feelings," "Snapback," "Hotel Key" and "One Man Band," for which the band was awarded a plaque prior to the show for hitting one billion (with a b) streams.

The highlight of the show was when Ramsey told the crowd just by showing up, they were helping victims of the recent tornadoes that left a path of destruction through Middle Tennessee.

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Before playing "No Such Thing as a Broken Heart," Ramsey said no matter where they go, there is someone in the crowd that needs to hear the song that says, "You know you can't keep the ground from shaking/No matter how hard you try, you can't keep the sunsets from fading."

"Somebody here needs to hear it and tonight is a little bit extra special because when we booked this show a long time ago, we could not have known that just a few days before, some tornadoes were going to rip through this place and so I think there's a lot of people in this room and in this community that need to hear this song."

He said the band started talking about ways they could help, including taking one dollar from every ticket sold and donating it to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee's disaster relief fund — which they did.

"Once we did that, Bridgestone Arena said 'We'll match it.' And once they did that, I got a phone call from a guy named Casey Wasserman, the head of our booking agency and he said 'We'll match it.' And then we got a text from our business managers and they said 'We'll match it.' There's over 11,000 people in here, so that means we are well above $40,000 that we raised all together just by showing up here tonight to help people who are really hurting in this community, so thank you for showing up like you did."

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

The arena floor was littered with homemade poster board signs donning song titles in a sort of primitive attempt to make a request. And it worked.

"That's a good one," Ramsey said, looking at a large sign at the front of the crowd. "Think we can do 'Wrong Turns'? What guitar do I use for that one?"

He said at the beginning of the tour the band sat down and planned out what they considered to be the perfect set list. But the fans began to tell them otherwise.

"We realized that all these signs started showing up for songs that were not on the set list. So at some point tonight, just as we have throughout the entire tour, we're gonna start taking requests. It's the last show, y'all, who knows what they hell we're gonna do. This is not planned and that means the chances of us screwing it up are pretty good."

In addition to "Wrong Turns," fans requested — and heard "Different About You," and "Still Writing Songs About You."

"This is not just any show," Ramsey told the crowd. "This is Nashville, Tennessee, y'all. There's a lot of love and a lot of energy in this room tonight. It's been one amazing year. We don't want it to end, but it has to end."

But not before the band's three-song encore of "Hawaii," "How Good Is That," and a barn burning rendition of "I Was on a Boat That Day."

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Old Dominion in Nashville setlist:

• "Make It Sweet"
• "No Hard Feelings"
• "Never Be Sorry"
• "Break Up with Him"
• "Midnight Mess Around"
• "No Such Thing as a Broken Heart"
• "I Should Have Married You"
• "Written in the Sand"
• "Different About You"
• "Wrong Turns"
• "Snapback"
• "Hotel Key"
• "Memory Lane"
• "One Man Band"
• "Song for Another Time"
• "Can't Break Up Now"
• "Still Writing Songs About You"
• "Can't Get You"
• "Save It for a Rainy Day"
• "Heart is a Bar"
• "Hawaii"
• "How Good Is That?"
• "I Was on a Boat That Day"

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com or on X @HurtMelonee.

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