Old Dominion to return to Green Bay Feb. 9
By Kira Doman
Contributing Writer
After touring around the world with its acoustic country music, Old Dominion will return to Green Bay Thursday, Feb. 9, for the first time in eight years.
“We’re really excited to make our return for the first time in a while,” Matthew Ramsey, lead singer of Old Dominion, said. “I’m looking forward to playing ‘One Man Band’ for everyone. It’s fun to watch it grow, and to see how our music has grown overall in the city since our last performance.”
First performing at Lambeau Field in 2015, Old Dominion will move across the street to the Resch Center (820 Armed Forces Dr.) as part of the No Bad Vibes tour.
“It’s always interesting to hit up different cities and countries,” Ramsey said. “It’s cool to play somewhere and hear your songs sung back to you in like a German accent.”
Old Dominion toured with Kenny Chesney for the Here and Now tour of 2022, forming a great friendship and channeling some rocking music together.
While on tour, they couldn’t keep a pair of sunglasses in their stock, and eventually returned to Chesney to draw up their groovy 2023 No Bad Vibes tour poster.
“When we were on tour with Kenny Chesney, he had these big sunglasses that said ‘No Bad Vibes’ on it and we just could not keep enough of them in stock,” Ramsey said. “People just kept buying them and buying them, and then when it came time to name this tour it was actually Chesney who who told us that we should name it the No Bad Vibes tour.”
During the pandemic, Ramsey said the band developed a new song writing method — waiting to write their music until their studio time and recording the songs on the same day.
With the pandemic slowing down, the band now writes using a hybrid of pre-written songs and songs written in the studio.
“So this next project is sort of a combination of the two,” Ramsey said. “We’ve done some pre-written songs and then gone and recorded those, and maybe inspiration will strike while we’re in the studio and we’ll write something and record it right there. So it’s kind of both ways.”
Old Dominion just released a small collection of new songs, the first of which being “Memory Lane”.
“‘Memory Lane’ was inspired by the first line of the song, really [If I could buy a house on Memory Lane…],” Ramsey said. “I think that idea of putting your memories in a physical piece of real estate and having a place to go visit was just a new way to think about your past and your memories.”
Along with their most recent single, “Memory Lane” released on Jan. 5, Old Dominion also released a sampler album of the same title on Jan. 9.
“We teased music out to our fans, wanting to give them the power of deciding our next single,” Ramsey said. “It’s difficult to narrow it down to a single with five different voices and creative opinions tossed into the equation. Letting the fans decide gives us the direct feedback we want, and Memory Lane really resonated with a large group of listeners.”
Ramsey said he hopes their music can be as life changing as it was for him.
“Music affected me as a kid growing up, and it really helped me through some things,” said Ramsey. “And I’ve been given the chance to stand on stage and see it having that same type of effect on other people. It’s really an amazing gift to be able to witness that.”
To listen to their old music and new, head to reschcomplex.com to get tickets for Old Dominion’s Feb. 9 concert at the Resch Center.