Joining the Revolution

Had you suggested a few weeks ago I could become a fan of O.A.R. (aka Of A Revolution), I would have shook my head and looked at you like you had a monkey sitting on your head …

Last night, all of that changed. I officially became an O.A.R. fan …

… The wheels were set in motion, of course, last week when I got the assignment to preview and interview the band for the upcoming show in town. I started previewing some of their music on iTunes, and then got a copy of their latest 'Stories of a Stranger,' which I fell in love with almost immediately. The more I read, and the more I heard from Richard On during our phone interview Friday, the more intrigued I became …

Still, I headed to their show last night with barely any expectations …

…Although, it didn’t start off so great. … I rode over to the show on a shuttle bus that stunk like a boy’s locker room, and sitting across from me were a handful of high school-wannabe-frat-jocks who were fidgeting with the radio dial like a bunch of 4-year-olds… and the bus driver was allowing it! If I was him, I would have stopped the bus and made them walk …idiots. ...And while it was a little comical watching the endless stream of girls pulling up their pants because they’re so low-cut they might as well be wearing them at their knees, it was hardly amusing when I made a pit stop in the men’s bathroom and some 20-year-old kid stepped to a urinal and dropped his drawers for everyone to see his bald bottom …

Nonetheless … the show did go on. Army of Me opened … Their songs occasionally were catchy, and they featured some cool guitar riffs, but the vocals were sub par and nasally… Meanwhile, I’m thinking, ‘these guys sound like Bush with members of the Monkees singing vocals’ .. and I’m not sure if the lead singer reminds me more of Rob Thomas or Chris Martin …’

… and as gigantic as the venue appears, it seemed empty. Granted there were no seats set up for this one, leaving the audience with few options other than to stand and crowd around the stage -- even then there had to be only a couple hundred people at the show, in a venue that spans about the size of two football fields and holds nearly 4,500.

By the time, O.A.R. hit the stage, I was actually entertaining the thought of leaving after a few songs …

Sha!

The band’s first song literally blew me away. It was explosive. The light show was spectacular!! …Guitarist Richard On and saxist Jerry DePizzo went off on dazzling solos and didn’t stop all … night … long … I knew the moment the opening song was over that I was in for a treat and wouldn’t be forgetting this show any time soon …

… and while I don’t yet know a lot of the words to a lot of songs, it didn’t stop me from doing my own little dancing and jumping around with the crowd. … several times throughout the show -- the concert, mind you, was taking place on the second floor of a huge field house/recreation center, above a pool -- you could feel the floor trembling beneath you and see the lights bouncing from the rafters like they were hanging from a bungy chord. And I’m thinking, ’well, this is great and a ton of fun, but please don’t let me be on the news tonight for a story about this floor collapsing …’

Nonetheless … The show continued on. ‘Love and Memories’ and ‘Hey Girl’ had the crowd going wild, not to mention a couple more sweeeeeeeeeet saxophone solos (there were a few times I thought I was watching Dave Matthews Band, not OAR ...) ... And after the band had been playing for more than an hour, all of the members left the stage except for lead singer Marc Roberge, who announced he was trying out a new song: Princess Valerie. A light, coffeehouse-type tune, he played solo, singing with his acoustic guitar -- and performed it beautifully. Yeah, this is about the time the lighters came out …

Finally, the rest of the band returned and it came time for the part of the show I’d been reading about -- the band playing the fan-favorite ‘Crazy Game of Poker.’ Personally, I don’t see the appeal of the song, but the crowd went crazy for it nonetheless. There were more soaring saxophone and guitar solos. And the floor continued to shake …

… But if my jaw wasn’t open enough by the end of the show, it hit the floor for the grand finale. The guys invited Army of Me lead singer Vince Scheuerman back on stage and rolled into a cover of U2’s ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday.’ … There’s no words to explain how great it was. It was loud, dead-on and it rrrrrocked!!

As I joined the herds to catch a bus back to the parking area, a guy behind me said to his buddy, ‘That was pretty much amazing.’ … ‘Yeah, that was straight-up,’ the buddy replied.

I’ll say.

(For the complete set list, links to downloads and more reviews of the show -- some of the aspects noted above, and some I didn’t catch on to -- are here.)