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Catching up with O.A.R. before sold-out Vail performance

L. Kent Wolgamott
Last Word Features
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O.A.R. formed in 1996 in Rockville, Md. Four original members are still in the active lineup.
O.A.R./Courtesy photo

Chris Culos was looking at a list of 46 songs that O.A.R. was getting ready to play in Grand Rapids, Michigan and at Wisconsin’s Summerfest, the hard-touring Maryland rock band’s first engagements of the summer.

That list included hits like “Love and Memories,” “Lay Down” and “Shattered (Turn The Car Around,” some of the band’s earliest songs like “That Was A Crazy Game of Poker,” now 28 years old, some rarities and a few covers.

But regardless of the set lists the band puts together for each show, there’s a single goal when O.A.R. hits the stage.



“Whether we’re playing a song we’ve played 10,000 times, or one we haven’t pulled out in six years, it’s coming from this place of ‘let’s really make some magic here’ and know that we’re all on this train together and who knows where parts of it are going,” Culos said in a late-June interview.

Making magic, however, isn’t guaranteed, and often takes some time, which Culos said in shorter shows, might happen a song or two before the set ends.

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“The fun and interesting thing about it is that there’s no way to really make it happen,” he said. “It’s almost like letting it happen naturally. If you try to find it, if you’re thinking about it too much, it can kind of escape you.”

But when it happens, it creates some special communication among the seven guys on stage.

“It could just be a glance from the bass player or an eyebrow raise from the saxophone player or a hand cue from the singer,” said the drummer, who has to anchor the shifting sound. “It’s like that one little thing, we know exactly what they mean and it speaks volumes. 

“So maybe we pick it up. Maybe we drop it down. Maybe we change directions. Maybe it’s a solo,” Culos said. “Maybe it’s total audible. Our singer will read a sign that a seven-year-old kid wrote saying, ‘Hey, this is my first concert, please play this song.’ So you just have to be on your toes at all times. That’s what I love about it.”

There’s another element in making the magic that O.A.R. can’t control and it’s not on stage. 

“There’s no way of knowing how the crowd is going to have an energy,” Culos said. “Whether it’s a large crowd or a small crowd, an indoor venue or an outdoor venue, there are so many variables that make that intangible thing between us and the crowd happen. And you just have to let that connection happen. You can’t really force it.”

O.A.R.’s July-through-September sojourn is the band’s first headlining tour since 2019. After being off of the road during the pandemic, they did co-headlining tours with Dispatch in 2022 and the Goo Goo Dolls last year.

That, Culos said, is a good thing for both band and fans.

“We didn’t get those full 2-hour-and-15 minute-long sets on those tours,” he said. “Now we can really dive back into our deep catalog. What I think our long-term fans like the most about us is we’re going to play the classics that you know and love. And even if we do, we’re going to put a spin on them, so each night there’s a unique version … and you’re going to get some rare songs.”

Those rarities don’t just come from the band members as they work up songs for a tour and write up a nightly setlist. There’s fan input as well.

“We listen to the online chatter,” Culos said. “We have a really cool community of people. So we know the songs that they haven’t heard in a long time. We know that someone’s coming to their 100th show and they’re requesting a song we haven’t played in six years. And we’ll try to play it.”

Those songs could have been played at Madison Square Garden, which the band has sold-out, Red Rocks Amphitheater, which O.A.R. have packed a dozen times or even the New Year’s Eve celebration in New York’s Times Square, where the band has performed.

Those shows are evidence of the growing success for this somewhat under-the-radar band, since O.A.R. began in 1996 and started making records the next year.

It’s also evidence how the band built one of rock’s most dedicated fan bases from their live shows as much as their albums.

“People were taping our shows in the early days of the internet, and there was a community of tape traders that spread our music around,” Culos said.

“In the early days of file sharing, when people were spreading their music around college campuses, we sort of went viral on Napster before there was even such a thing,” he said. “So from early on, we had to create a show that people would want to see multiple times. That’s why we don’t play the same set list every night.”

That’s also why O.A.R. is best known for its live shows and why the band has released a half-dozen live albums to go with its 10 studio releases. 

In fact, O.A.R. recently announced a new concert album, “Live in Boston.” It will come from the band’s July 20 performance at the Leader Bank Pavilion, a night when O.A.R. especially hopes they conjured the magic that the band tries to create at every show.

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