Oar

OAR: Sad, Sorry, Weak by Scott Turner After a brief taste of spring, the weather took a step backwards on April 4th, as students congregated at Millet Hall to see the band Of a Revolution, or O.A.R. Another, smaller group of about a dozen students would bundle up against the elements to protest the third performance by the band in Oxford in as many years. The students, holding signs with messages such as ‘Less OAR is MORE’, and ‘How about some GOOD music?’ were attempting to not only voice their dislike for the band themselves, but also the inability of student organizations to bring in artists of varying genres and popularity. O.A.R., who formed in 1996 at Ohio State University, has a long history here at Miami University. Performing at the Phi Kappa Tau and Acacia houses in ’99 and ’00 respectively, they began to move out of the fraternity basements when their third album, Risen, debuted at #11 on the Billboard top internet sales chart. Gaining a grassroots fan base across the college campuses of Ohio, it seemed, had paid off. Their show at Millet last week was the first concert in the Midwest since their performance at Madison Square Garden earlier this year, and is the commencement of their summer tour. The opening act for the concert was Mike Perkins, who is also an Ohio native. An acoustic singer/songwriter, what he lacked in vocal capability he made up for in his solid guitar work and performances from his backup keyboardist and bassist. Jerry DePizzo, O.A.R.’s sax player, came out for his last few songs—setting precedence for the rest of the night with his stunning sax solos. Other high points of his act were an outro with a jaw harp and an amazing strumming bass solo. A standard opener, Perkins’ chill tunes, relaxing though up-tempo, effectively set the mood for O.A.R.

After a brief intermission, the main act entered and opened with the song Dareh Meyod, which means ‘It’s coming,’ in Farsi. An O.A.R. standard, they’ve opened with this song 71 times according to oarsa.org, an online collection of O.A.R. setlists, lyrics, guitar tabs, and other interesting statistics. They then continued with Wonderful Day, and then followed up with fan favorites About an Hour Ago and Night Shift. The next song, Lay Down, began with a sweet African drum duet between O.A.R.’s drummer, Chris Culos, and guest keyboardist Michael Paris on the bongos. The concert, though, which had been both entertaining and engaging at the beginning, would begin to lose the audience during the next two songs, Here’s to You and What is Mine. The previously unreleased and obnoxiously reggae What is Mine, was a bit sloppy and suffered to Marc Roberge’s sluggish vocals, which are normally coarse on studio recordings. Something would happen during the song which is not often heard in a normal indoor concert—the conversations in the crowd began to drown out the band. Also not typical of an O.A.R. concert, or any band with a grassroots fan base like O.A.R., people began to sit down. They must have noticed the crowd’s waning interest, though, and would attempt to bring back the beat and energy with King of the Thing and Anyway. On Anyway, Michael Paris played an energetic keyboard solo and DePizzo blew out his lungs on an amazing tenor sax solo, retreating to the background afterwards to enjoy a well-earned cigarette. After Anyway, the band played Conquering Fools, at the request of a group of fans brandishing a message written on a bed sheet, and would follow that with The Stranger, off of their latest album, 2005 release Stories of a Stranger.

The last three songs of the main set were longtime classics Black Rock, That Was a Crazy Game of Poker, and Hey Girl. Black Rock, finally bringing back the energy acclaimed by O.A.R. fans, featured a bongo intro as well as more impressive solos by Paris and DePizzo. Shamelessly advertising their new live DVD, recorded at their Madison Square Garden concert on January 27th, Roberge declared that they would play Crazy Game as close to then as possible. “Ever had your face melted off by a triangle?” Roberge asked the crowd, “It’s not something you see at a typical rock concert. Well we’re not a typical rock band.” Although mildly entertaining, the triangle solo, as well as Crazy Game, left something to be desired. Normally praised for the uniqueness of their shows, one could only feel cheated at the lack of improvisation and jam usually associated with this classic. It would also be the only song with a solo by bassist Benj Gershman, albeit short, and a notable guitar solo by Richard On. Hey Girl, as expected, began with a slow acoustic intro and finally noticeably involved the crowd. The song ended powerfully and would be the best performance of the evening. The encore was another low point in the show, beginning with Maybe It’s Just Me, a slow solo acoustic song performed by Roberge. Like What is Mine, it was the first time the song was performed and it similarly failed to capture the audience’s attention. The final song, Love and Memories, which features DePizzo on the electric guitar, was performed very well, although it contained no jam, solos, or improvisation during a period in the concert which these things are expected. Ultimately, the concert was unsatisfying. Not unsatisfying like a great concert should be—one that leaves you wanting more, where you listen to the band’s songs the entire way home. Unsatisfying in that it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, wondering

why you wanted to go the first place. Although there was a great showcase of talent from the band members, especially saxophonist DePizzo and guest keyboardist/percussionist Paris, frequently the performance lacked the energy from the rest of the band needed to engage the audience, and many of the low points were during new material. Both the band and the crowd were into their older songs such as Night Shift, Black Rock, and Hey Girl. Unfortunately, many other longtime favorites such as City on Down, Delicate Few, Risen, and Road Outside Columbus were missing from the lineup. Many of the songs were near the ten minute mark. Instead of taking too much time for extended jam, they should be attempting to squeeze into the concert many of these favorites that were absent, saving the jam and repetitive vocal ‘improv’ for times when they aren’t too lazy to put in the energy to make jamming a successful addition. As students were leaving the concert, fighting against the cold wind, the protesters were absent from their position on Sycamore, but one couldn’t help but wonder if they were right. 6.5/10