BLOG IN YOUR FACE

This is my review of the band O.A.R. and their show at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa at The University of Northern Iowa.This was my 8th time seeing the guys and it never gets old. For as long as I can remember, Bob Dylan and O.A.R. have held a tying spot at #1 on my list of favorite bands. I never have a complaint about the guys from O.A.R. in concert because they always bring energy and enthusiasm to all of their performances and I have a heterosexual man-crush on all of them, anyway.

But before I go on, let me just tell you what happened to me on Monday night after I had driven over 250 miles to see them play. I was standing there toward the back of this horribly acoustic hockey arena after the first of two opening acts. I turned around and there I saw standing all by themselves were Benji (bassist) and Jerry (saxophonist). Haha, Ben and Jerry, right?

Anyway, the entire crowd must have been clueless of their presence because nobody was paying the slightest attention to them. I casually walked over and said the first thing that came to my mind: “Hey, how’s it goin’ dudes?”

To make a long story short, they ended up talking to me for about 5 or 10 minutes (I don’t really know, I blacked out from excitement) and even offered to take a picture with me. The entire time, nobody else noticed them (us). It was like God was granting me 10 minutes of privacy with my favorite band. Incredible…

But getting to their actual set, I must say that I felt horrible for them. The sound in that wretched arena is horrible and they had tons and tons of technical difficulties just trying to make it work. I gotta hand it to the guys, though; in the face of all that, they managed to persevere.

They seemed to have quite a bit of energy up there. Before the show I asked those two if they had a nice break and they said they didn’t really get to take much of a break but did not elaborate. Turns out a couple of days later (today, in fact) Marc (vocals, guitar) released a statement on OARfans.com:

We just finished a show in Kentucky and wanted to take this chance to catch you all up on what is going on with the new record before we let anyone else know tomorrow. In October we all moved out to Los Angeles to begin pre production on the record. We spent a few weeks reworking old songs and writing new ones. These were the best days in so many ways. Taking the time to map out what we wanted to do before we hit record was the best way to make an album. It was like being in the early years of this band. Hanging around writing songs together for nothing more than the pure enjoyment of being in a band. By the time November rolled around we were ready to go. Matt Wallace produced the record and we must thank him for seeing our vision and allowing us to be ourselves. That’s really what this experience was all about. Getting on tape what we love to do in the most honest way we know how. And Matt provided the perfect atmosphere for us to create. The record is called All Sides and we are so proud of it. It comes out July 15th and we are excited for you to hear what we have been working on this past couple years.

We also want to let you know we are trying to get some of the tracks out early. Through Ticketmaster you can get a couple of the tracks right away and another one a month before the record is released. If you buy two tickets to the summer tour there is an option to buy the record which will be delivered a day before the release date as well. Just trying to get this thing out there.

Anyway, we wanted to wait to talk about the album until we had all the details worked out. It has been killing us. We want nothing more than to share this album with you. It was a true labor of love.

Thanks as always for your support. It means the world to us. See you this summer. Be good.

So the whole time they were on hiatus shortly before this show, I thought they were maxing and relaxing. Turns out they were recording the new record and I could not be more ecstatic at hearing this news. Apparently the band is quite excited as well because I could see it in their stage presence.

It was nice to hear them play some old school songs like Get Away, Conquering Fools and Mr. Moon. For me, Mr. Moon holds a special place in my heart. The song is about what it would be like to be the Man in the Moon and to look down on our world and to see how we handle every political situation that arises with war and bloodshed. It depicts the Man in the Moon simply laughing at us for what we are doing to ourselves.

Sometimes I laugh at where the world is going until I cry…that’s all.

Besides the acoustics and the crowd surfers, it was another magical show that left me feeling like I want to change things around me. O.A.R. stands for “Of a Revolution” and they could not come closer to the solidifying that name. They truly are something else, I tell ya…