Fans braved a chilly Nashville night to fill a sold-out Ryman for the first night of Finneas O'Connell’s “For Cryin’ Out Loud!” U.S. tour Thursday evening.
The tour was announced alongside the release of O'Connell's second studio album, “For Cryin’ Out Loud!” in October 2024.
Indie rock band Bad Suns opened the show and will tour alongside O’Connell for the month-long leg.
While fans bubbled with anticipation, the band started with an energetic performance of “Swimming in the Moonlight,” a song from their 2016 album, “Disappear Here.”
Following their song “Salt,” lead singer and guitarist Christo Bowman introduced his bandmates Gavin Bennet on bass and Miles Morris on drums, who also played drums on O’Connell’s new record.
In concordance with Valentine's Day, Bad Suns performed a cover of “Lovefool,” by The Cardigans.
Bowman let some steam into the room after removing his shirt between songs, causing a stir in the audience.
The band debuted a new single on stage, “Communicating,” which has already accumulated over 400,000 streams on Spotify since its January release.
They performed a few more upbeat songs before closing with the fan-favorite “Daft Pretty Boys,” leaving the audience eager for O’Connell to take the stage.
Less than an hour later, the lights dimmed and O’Connell took to the stage, waving at fans, before a spotlight came to rest on him seated at a white piano.
He tastefully started the set with a thoughtful rendition of the first track on his new album, “Starf—--.”
O’Connell welcomed the fans to the first U.S. tour and joked about being ready to rock after his eight hours of sleep the night before.
The rest of the show was punctuated with light-hearted interactions of O’Connell interacting with fans.
The audience danced and sang along to his following songs from the new album, which emphasized his rock inspiration, “Lotus Eater,” “Cleats,” “What’s It Gonna Take to Break Your Heart?” and “Sweet Cherries.”
On a more sentimental note, O’Connell dedicated the song “Angel” to his longtime girlfriend, Claudia Sulewski, in a touching gesture.
Following a slower ballad of “Little Window,” which inspired fans to turn the flashlights on and wave them in the air, O’Connell commended the fans for holding their arms up that long before playing his 2022 single, “Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa.”
In between songs, Finneas introduced his band members, David Marinelli, Aaron Forbes, Miles Morris and Ricky Corbett, who he especially joked with for creating a T-shirt with O’Connell’s face on the Statue of Liberty.
The audience again had something to cheer for when Finneas segwayed into his 2021 collaboration song with Ashe, “Till Forever Falls Apart,” one of his most recognizable songs.
O’Connell also dedicated his song “Family Feud,” to his 10-time Grammy-winning sister, Billie Eillish, while acknowledging fans who saw her perform at Bridgestone Arena in November.
After tear-jerking renditions of songs from “Blood Harmony,” O’Connell started wrapping up his show with the title track “For Cryin’ Out Loud!”
However, the show was not over.
To the audience's delight, O’Connell welcomed his “role model and friend,” Haley Williams, lead singer of Paramore, to the stage.
For the final song, Williams and O’Connell performed a rendition of “crushcrushcrush” from Paramore's 2007 album “Riot!” providing an electric conclusion to the tour's first show.
The tour will continue into the summer, ending in Paris in July.
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This article was written by Samantha Graessle
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