O.A.R.: On a roll at Brockport
By Evan N. Brengel “Getting there four hours before O.A.R was even on stage was completely worth it,” freshman Peter Terilli said, expressing the general feeling after this year’s spring concert, featuring the rock band Of A Revolution. On Sunday, April 15, the Tuttle North Ice arena was packed with 1,977 eager fans, interested newcomers and students just looking for an enjoyable experience on an otherwise dull Sunday night. They were not disappointed. Right on schedule, the show kicked off at 8 p.m. with Telograph, a band that has signed up to tour with O.A.R for five of their tour dates. According to telograph.com, the band “spans a variety of genres and eras and has culminated into something fresh and original. Influences are wide-ranging, though mostly lie within modern brit-pop.” The crowd reaction to Telograph was amused at best. “The opening act wasn’t very good — nothing special at all,” sophomore Scott Gears said. Gears had a valid point. Though there was talent present, there was nothing that would send anyone in the audience racing back to iTunes to purchase the Telograph songs they had just heard. The feeble applause was synonymous to the level of musical variety Telograph provided — just barely there.
However, one must keep in mind that every band has to get its start somewhere. When The Fray opened for Ben Folds last year, not many people had any idea who they were. Now look at the band’s chart-topping hits and record sales. After a half-hour break, the lights went down again at 9 p.m. as the members of O.A.R and their guest key-boardist (who proved to have the most energy of all as he bounced up and down) ran onstage to thunderous applause and cheers. They opened with their hit “52/50,” the same song used by BSG in promotional ticket sales. “I loved the entire thing,” Terilli said. Right from the get-go, the band provided an incredible energy that the crowd fed off of, despite the strange tranquility that O.A.R music resonates. The crowd sang along regardless if they knew the words or not, and danced like no one was watching. (Some people need to be more aware of this, because the fact is there were nearly 2000 other people watching.) It was an awesome experience and awareness of how the time was flying by was drowned out by the blend of Marc Roberge’s urgent voice blended with the sounds of the band. Freshman Shea Woodard said she “wished they had played more old [songs].” Sara Boulden, also a freshman, agreed. “They only played one song I knew, and that was ‘Hey Girl,’ but then they changed the lyrics so I couldn’t sing along!”she said. Still, the band played a large number of its more popular hits that were enthusiastically received, including “That Was A Crazy Game of Poker,” “Loving Memories” and a song they plan on releasing in June, entitled “Whatever Happens.”
The attitudes and behavior of the crowd seemed to reflect the band’s semi-mellow vibe. “I don’t think anyone had a bad time,” BSG Programming Director Mike Davis said. According to BSG Programming Assistant Phillip Smith, the event “went smoothly, with no glitches.” Even though some students felt the need to carry out some classic crowd surfing, “we had no students injured or that needed to be transported by the ambulances we had standing by outside,” Smith said. Lead singer Roberge joked during the concert that “Brockport was an unusually polite crowd.” According to Smith, a few students were turned away at the door “because they were too intoxicated.” “Our crowd was limited,” Davis said, referring to the 3,100 person capacity that was shy about a thousand tickets, but he said the concert didn’t sell out because of “the new college policy that kept the concert closed from general admission.”
After the band finished the main performance at 11 p.m., they were requested back on stages with cheers of “encore” and played out an additional half hour for grateful fans. “They played two and a half hours, which is a pretty sizeable amount for any concert,” Davis said. “I think the students had a really good time.”
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