How O.A.R. turned campus nights into a phenomenon

Most teenage rock bands don’t last three years, let alone three decades, but O.A.R. has always been an outlier. The multiplatinum hitmakers, also known as Of A Revolution, will embark on a 30th anniversary tour this year, celebrating a history in which Ohio State is deeply intertwined.

Singer-guitarist Marc Roberge ’01, drummer Chris Culos ’01, guitarist Richard On and bassist Benj Gershman formed the band in 1996 as high schoolers in Rockville, Maryland, and quickly accumulated a word-of-mouth fan base. “We thought if we all went to college together, we could give this a real shot,” Culos says.

Ohio State was on their radar because Culos’ mom, Janie Silverman Culos ’67, studied there. After visiting campus, they were convinced Columbus was a perfect launchpad for their band. Roberge recalls the rationale: “Let’s go to the school with the most bars and live venues available within the smallest amount of space and biggest amount of students.”

At orientation in 1997, Roberge met Youngstown native Jerry DePizzo, who soon entered the fold on saxophone and guitar. As soon as they arrived on campus, the group began a relentless grassroots promotional effort, gaining support from their peers, professors and the High Street record store Johnny Go’s House o’ Music, which sold their albums on consignment.

As underclassmen, O.A.R. played everywhere they could, from local clubs to Mirror Lake to the campus Chabad house. But they truly picked up steam at parties in venues like a 12th Avenue living room, the courtyard of a Woodruff Avenue apartment complex and fraternity and sorority houses. “We would play for four or five hours, original music, and we only had 10 songs,” Roberge says.

Forgoing covers is not a conventional strategy for a college party band. Yet O.A.R.’s extended jams of songs, like the reggae-tinged “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker,” attracted such a loyal following that the group was able to sell out Newport Music Hall during their sophomore year, a moment they remember as a turning point.

“That was the catalyst, the catapult for our adventure across the Midwest and East Coast through our college years,” DePizzo says.

From there, O.A.R. was off and running. They spent their junior and senior years touring an increasingly broad radius as their music reached even farther thanks to Napster and other burgeoning file-sharing platforms. Taking a page from forebears like the Grateful Dead and Dave Matthews Band, they cultivated a fan community centered on live shows and concert recordings, becoming a DIY success story even before they signed with Lava Records for their fourth album, 2003’s In Between Now and Then.

The milestones kept accumulating: Hearing their 2003 single “Hey Girl” on the radio. Selling out Madison Square Garden in 2006 on the heels of MTV/VH1 airplay for their “Love and Memories” and “Lay Down.” Playing their first USO tour in 2007. Climbing the Billboard Hot 100 with 2008’s “Shattered (Turn the Car Around).” 

All the while, O.A.R. toured coast to coast, hitting many of the same venues repeatedly, including Colorado’s famed Red Rocks, where they recorded their 2012 live album. More recently, O.A.R. has appeared annually at Ocean’s Calling, the Maryland music festival they co-founded.

Though most members eventually moved away from Columbus, O.A.R. remained closely tied to Ohio State. In 2011, DePizzo recruited horn players Jon Lampley ’13 and Evan Oberla ’09 as touring members. Lampley, who dotted the “i” in Script Ohio three times as a sousaphone player in the marching band, was still enrolled when O.A.R. joined forces with TBDBITL for a 2012 concert on the Oval to kick off the But for Ohio State campaign.

“I will never forget this, the next day going to a class and everybody in the class looking at me like, ‘You were on stage,’” says Lampley, now also a member of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” house band and co-founder of the jazz-funk group Huntertones.

O.A.R.’s connection to Ohio State remains strong. Last March, they teamed with the marching band again while performing at St. John Arena before the Columbus Blue Jackets’ game at Ohio Stadium. For Lampley, who worked with TBDBITL for the event, that was a “very surreal day.” 

Then, in August, O.A.R. headlined Pelotonia’s opening ceremony, attracting a crowd of 20,000 to an event that normally draws 12,000-14,000.

“The community excitement when we were able to announce that O.A.R. was playing was just off the charts,” Pelotonia CEO Joe Apgar says. “I think a lot of people signed up this year or re-engaged with us as a result of them playing.”

The band tailored its set for Pelotonia, including local favorite “Road to Columbus” and “Miss You All the Time,” an emotional ballad about losing a loved one that struck a chord at the cancer benefit.

“They brought a really special energy to the weekend,” Apgar says. “I think everybody left that evening as an O.A.R. fan.”

O.A.R. came away from the event feeling similarly warm and fuzzy. “The place was packed, the day was beautiful, the moment was meaningful,” Roberge says. “We all left there feeling a little more accomplished.”

On this year’s Three Decades Tour, O.A.R. will celebrate their 30th anniversary across the country, including another Columbus gig at KEMBA Live! on Sept. 10. For band and fans alike, these shows have become treasured rituals.

“We really find value in tradition,” Roberge says, “which is so similar to The Ohio State University.”