I go to a lot of concerts, so you should trust me when I
tell you that one of them’s good. Spoiler alert: Old Dominion’s Happy Ending
Tour was. The venue was the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, which I always like as
it feels intimate and yet a decent enough size for worthy bands to play in.
I was impressed with the lineup of the gig too, with not one
but two opening acts who you’re pretty certain to know if you’re a country fan.
We began with Eric Paslay. Eric looks to me like a bit of an introvert with his
busy beard and cap pulled low, which would make sense as he spent many years of
his career writing for other artists before charting out on his own.
We got to hear both songs recorded by him and those he had
written for other artists, including Never
Really Wanted, Jake Owen’s Barefoot
Blue Jean Night. He asked the audience what songs we wanted to hear before
playing She Don’t Love You and Eli
Young Band’s Grammy nominated Even If It
Breaks Your Heart (a song and a half if ever I’ve heard one!), putting his
full power into it. We finished with his biggest hit to date, Friday Night which had everyone bopping
along happily.
Next up was Walker Hayes, who I think can be touted as the
Marmite of country music – you either love him or hate him. He certainly has
his own unique style, as immediately became apparent by the techno strobe
lights and expletive filled backing song announcing his arrival.
Walker seems considerably younger than he is, talking about
swag and sporting a shirt with the slogan ‘No I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Amazing’
(which I later discovered was his merch), and I think his music is tailored
towards perhaps a younger audience too.
Throughout the set, he made his way through songs off last
years album boom. such as Prescriptions, Break The Internet and Beautiful. In comparison to Eric
Paslay’s well-thought out lyrics, choruses such as “I said baby, why do you
have to be so beautiful (x2)” seemed a bit of a disappointment.
We moved on to Mind
Candy (more lyrics like “Mind candy, sideline candy, pretty post game dose
with a lime candy, little piece of why school was high, make a pop rock, wanna
be my Valentine candy, sublime candy” – no, I don’t understand them either),
new single 90s Country, for which he
had done significant research on songs of that era, and Halloween which he said was “about as deep as I go.” Take from that
what you will.
We finished with his platinum hit You Broke Up With Me and a song dedicated to Kenny Chesney entitled
Shut Up Kenny (I’m not sure I’d be
too happy with that were I Kenny Chesney). In case you hadn’t guessed, Walker
Hayes is not quite my cup of tea but if you’re looking for country’s answer to
Eminem, he may just be your guy.
And then onto the main event, as the five-piece band took to
the stage to as warm a response as they deserved, cheers filling up the concert
hall. We kicked off with Song For Another
Time, and within thirty seconds, OD had already got the crowd to wave their
arms from side to side to the music. Every song was expertly linked to one
another as we flowed seamlessly into Wrong
Turns and then Beer Can In A Truck
Bed to create the most coherent set I think I’ve ever seen.
Song after song, the band members switched places on stage
so that they all got their chance to be at the front (bar drummer Whit Sellers
who arguably couldn’t move) which I thought was really nice. We moved onto more
recent songs like Not Everything’s About
You, Be With Me and Written In The
Sand – I loved how recognisable the opening chords to each song were so you
knew immediately what was coming and be ready to sing along from the very first
word.
This was followed by the masterpiece that is Said Nobody (songwriting at its finest
in this plot-twist song) and sultry Hotel
Key. I found myself thinking that this was the most fun I’d had in a long
time and I’m sure many of my fellow concert goers felt the same.
We headed onto another of my favourites, Still Writing Songs About You as the
band members showed off their musical skills, switching between various guitars
and keyboards and of course singing at the same time. Stars In The City got a great reaction as Matthew Ramsey told us
about ‘the girl who sees things differently’ who’d inspired the song, as did No Such Thing As A Broken Heart where we
were encouraged to have ‘a big sing-along’ – as if we needed to be told.
Crazy, Beautiful, Sexy
was followed by new single Make It
Sweet from confirmed upcoming third album. This was the first time I’d
heard the song and I thought there was no better place to hear it than live.
This relatively ‘more country’ song was juxtaposed nicely with the uber-rocky Can’t Get You (send this to your friends
if they say country is nothing like rock) as the strobe lights went wild and
Matthew spun his way around stage in a frenzy like a proper rockstar.
OD weren’t afraid to take other artists songs and make them
their own, offering a sweet rendition of Kenny Chesney’s Save It For A Rainy Day (no ‘Shut Up Kenny’s here) before another rocky track in the form
of New York At Night, sung by guitarist
Brad Tursi. As with Florida Georgia Line, I enjoy when ‘not-necessarily-lead-singers’
are given their time to shine, and the crowd loved it, giving Brad one of the
biggest cheers of the night.
Nowhere Fast and Break Up With Him ended the main set but
thankfully OD weren’t going to leave us high and dry, returning to the stage
for a decent three more songs. First was So
You Go, another example of lyrical genius and multiple uses of the titular words,
before another treat – new song Smooth
Sailing. OD haven’t disappointed with albums yet and I don’t think they’ll
do so with the next one either. We finished with karaoke favourite Snapback, with whoops and cheers
following the band of stage, and the memorable ‘Whoa-oh’ hook ringing in our
ears all the way home.
I hope you enjoyed my
review of Old Dominion! If you’re a fan, drop me a message with your favourite
song in the comments, and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for
even more country reviews and interviews coming soon – thanks for reading!
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