O.A.R.'s singer Marc Roberge (Photo by Jason Morneau)

Fourth in the series of introducing recordings from the Live Music Archive is O.A.R.’s show at Madison Square Garden. This is not the same concert as their release, Live from Madison Square Garden. O.A.R. is actually the first band I remember listening from the archive. Usually their music works best for me in the summer, but listening to the show now has definitely brightened up my December.

O.A.R. is also one of the bands whose rise to fame has been largely aided by online trading of recordings, so it’s only fitting to make the band part of this series. This is a soundboard recording mixed with a recording of the audience, so you get the best of both worlds. Great work by the tapers!

The recording is available as FLAC, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis. It can also be played in the onsite player, so listening shouldn’t be too hard.

O.A.R. Live at Madison Square Garden

In addition to your typical rock band lineup, O.A.R. has Jerry DePizzo on saxophone. Their music is a nice combination of rock and chilly reggae sounds. The show starts with a song from their 2005 studio release, Stories of a Stranger. Like many O.A.R. songs, it’s pretty long, letting the guys jam. Most other songs from that album are also played as it was their latest at the time.

The show features hit songs from last years as well as old songs well regarded by the fans. There are O.A.R. classics like The Wanderer, Black Rock, Hey Girl, and that real crowd favorite, City on Down. Recent hits include Love And Memories, Heard the World and Lay Down.

Two guests sit in for a song. On Daylight the Dog, there’s Colin Smith. The warm-up act, Matisyahu joins the band for Program Director in the encore. Matisyahu’s own set is also available as a soundboard recording. The other two songs in the encore are those that the band has been playing for over a decade: About Mr. Brown and That Was a Crazy Game of Poker, the former being my favorite song by the band.

There’s over 500 recordings of O.A.R. in the Live Music Archive. When their album Stories of a Stranger came out, many of their records could be listened to on their website, if not all of them. Currently some tracks from their latest studio release All Sides are available, as well as many videos. This band has realized it very well that letting people listen to the music helps make it popular.