Olivia O’Brien is Nashville’s Dream Girl
Nashville, Tennessee - October 14, 2026
A gathering of woodland fairies huddled close together, gravitating towards the stage at The Basement East in Nashville, TN. Upon further inspection, the group reveals themselves to be young women, murmuring excitedly about the night ahead of them. They’re dressed in accordance to Olivia O’Brien’s most recent album, Pixie, her first full-length project since leaving her original record label. It’s a dreamy album that leans into guitar-forward pop melodies and unshakeable sadness; nevertheless, everyone is ready to party, including O’Brien.
Preceding her entrance on the stage, 2000s club music shakes the room. It’s juxtaposed against O’Brien’s own commitment to the “pixie” aesthetic. Large moss covered rocks are scattered across the stage and as the final notes of “Sexy Bitch” by David Guetta bounce through the room, as O’Brien walks onto the stage donning a pair of fairy wings.
O’Brien starts the set with three of her heaviest hitters off Pixie, “Dream Girl,” “I Always Say I’m Leaving,” and “Written by a Man.” It paints a picture of where she is today, standing firmly in 2026. It’s a welcome orientation as the rest of the evening is a mosaic of all of the places she has been. The California native has been making music professionally for ten-years, so there is a lot to cover over the next hour and forty-five minutes. Something so expansive could feel put together frantically but after a decade, O’Brien is doing it all with ease.
She floats around the stage, embodying the words typeset across the album she is currently touring. Tiny gasps and whispers echo through the crowd. Phrases like “She’s ethereal!" and “Oh my god she’s actually right there,” get buried underneath the noise of the crowd. The fans in the room have been waiting for this moment and these songs since they first turned their ears towards them. They sing every word back, throwing their hands up in the air, ready to give it all back to O’Brien.
There’s an easy rapport between O’Brien and the audience. She talks about her mom’s third installment of her third marriage, living in Nashville for a month, and how her wig really feels like it’s going to fall off. The easy back and forth falls into something even more fun when O’Brien breaks out an a capella rendition of “I’m Perfect” – a moment made possible by the intimacy she’s created throughout the night.
O’Brien ends the show as she conducted most of it, cheekily. She tells the crowd she’s a woman of the people and wants to put the encore in their hands. She can either sing right through to the end:, no stage exit, no pomp and circumstance, just clean finish. Or. She can leave the stage and everyone will cheer as loud as they possibly can. The popular vote is in, there’s really no choice.The dance isn’t over. The crowd wants to scream. She plays them out to the classics, “Empty,” “hate u love u,” and, of course, "Josslyn."
Nashville was the last show of the first leg of the Pixie Tour but O’Brien gets back on the road starting November 2nd for a trip up the West Coast.
