Tucson's AVA opens '23 series with packed country show

After canceling several shows and fears that more would be shelved, the chart-topping pop-country band Old Dominion was back on stage Friday resuming its “No Bad Vibes” tour that was paused after lead singer Matthew Ramsey fractured his pelvis in a late March ATV crash.

It was Old Dominion’s first show in weeks and its first ever in Tucson, kicking off the AVA at Casino del Sol’s 2023 concert series that runs through early fall.

It also was a test run for Ramsey and his bandmates, who played a second show on Saturday, April 29, at the behemoth Stagecoach country festival in Indio, California, before returning to “No Bad Vibes” full-on next week.

Ramsey sat on a stool for most of the AVA show before a crowd that pretty much filled the 5,000-capacity amphitheater. A set of crutches was nearby to support him the few times he performed standing.

“This feels good,” he told the Tucson audience several songs into the 90-minute concert. “It’s nice to be playing music again. Obviously I’ve been sidelined for a minute. Thank you guys for being patient with me for sitting here on this chair for half the show.”

Fans who had seen Old Dominion at Country Thunder in Florence a couple of years ago understood Ramsey’s sentiment.

He’s the guy who makes good use of the whole stage, strutting, dancing and running around as he sings about “No Such Thing As A Broken Heart” and being stuck on you being stuck on me as we try to “Make it Sweet” when things look sour. He’s not a sit-in-a-chair-and-phone-it-in-guy, but Ramsey didn’t let being confined largely to sitting take the pep out of his sit.

Even sitting, Ramsey brought the party, aided by the energy and enthusiasm of bandmates Trevor Rosen, Brad Tursi, Geoff Sprung and Whit Sellers.

The band’s music, whether it’s the midtempo ballads “Written in the Sand” or “One Man Band” or the toe-tapping dancer “Ain’t Got A Worry” or the pop fun of “Hotel Key,” is infectious, which was evident when you looked out onto the sea of fans who were on their feet from the opening chord to the final declaration of “I Was on A Boat That Day.”

The show featured an infomercial for the band’s prolific songwriting that has included hits for everyone from Dierks Bentley to Kenny Chesney. They sang several of those songs including Band Perry’s hit “Better Dig Two,” “Make You Miss Me” that Sam Hunt charted, Bentley’s hit “Say You Do” and “A Guy Walks Into A Bar” recorded by Tyler Farr.

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There was only one true hiccup to the night: Ramsey seemed to forget the words to the band’s early hit “Snapback.”

“We’re rusty as hell,” he apologized, eliciting cheers and chuckles from the crowd. “I’ve been trying my damnedest to remember words of all the songs.”

At the end of the show, Ramsey stood up and told the audience that at that point in the show, the band usually walks off stage, does a shot of tequila and waits for the rush of “More! More!” to return for an obligatory encore.

But crutches kind of kill that mood so the band did the shot on stage before singing “Walk on Whiskey” and “I Was on a Boat That Day.”

“Of all the years that we’ve been doing this, very seldom do I get nervous,” Ramsey told the crowd. “I was nervous tonight.”

When the applause from those comments died down, he told the crowd that people always say “laughter is the best medicine, but this s*** right here is the best medicine.”

“We’ll come back and I’ll run around like a crazy man,” he promised.

“No Bad Vibes” kicks off May 4 in Savannah, Georgia, and runs through August. The shows the band canceled in March have been rescheduled for next March.

Next up at the AVA: Mexican singer-songwriter Pancho Barraza on Friday, May 5. For tickets, visit casinodelsol.com.