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O.A.R.

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Live From Madison Square Garden

Untitled That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker Lay Down Love And Memories 52-50 Dareh Meyod Something Coming Over Heard The World About An Hour Ago Black Rock Hey Girl City On Down One Shot Anyway Risen About Mr. Brown James Living In The End

Stories Of A Stranger

Lay Down Dakota Heard The World One Shot The Stranger Love and Memories Nasim Joon Wonderful Day 52-50 Tragedy In Waiting Program Director Daylight The Dog

In Between Now And Then (Limited Edition CD & DVD) (U.S.Version)

Whose Chariot? Any Time Now Risen Road Outside Columbus Dareh Meyod Revisited Behind The Scenes Footage Revisited O.A.R. Live Performance Longform at Irving Plaza That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker Coalminer Anyway Now Right On Time Mr. Moon Risen Hey Girl Old Man Time Then James Documentary

In Between Now And Then (U.S. Version)

Coalminer Old Man Time Road Outside Columbus Mr. Moon Any Time Now Dareh Meyod Whose Chariot? Then Risen Anyway Now Revisited Right On Time Hey Girl James

Check out O.A.R.'s official web site.

O.A.R. Biography

Marc Roberge doesn't want to lie to you.

As front man of the phenomenon known as O.A.R., he could play the trouper and talk about how every show is special in its own way.  He could tell stories of how he and his band drove themselves just as hard when playing for a handful of underclassmen back at Ohio State University as they do when bringing thousands of fans to their feet at some more massive venue.

Sure, he could do that because it's true... up to a point.

Because it doesn't matter what you've done before:  no matter how hard you rock any joint on any headline act's itinerary, it does not, it cannot, it never will compare to playing Madison Square Garden.

The proof is all over the upcoming double DVD set, Live From Madison Square Garden, which includes the 90-minute feature film, "Behind The Backline," and O.A.R.'s live Madison Garden performance in its entirety, capturing the band at full power in the most celebrated arena on Earth.

Seldom has there been a better match captured on disc:  a band that was known as one of the greatest live acts of all time long before they signed a major label deal... and a place where history is made almost as a matter of routine, whether in sports, speechmaking, or musical performance.

Not only that:  Behind the Backline excels as a piece of filmmaking on its own terms.  With its unique perspective, beginning with fans flocking to New York even as the band bus rolls on toward town, it envelops its participants along with those who witness it now on screen.

Live From Madison Square Garden is concert filmmaking at its finest, on a level with Bullet in a Bible, Heart of Gold, and The Last Waltz, and yet also in a space of its own, for a handful of reasons:

The Band

O.A.R. needs no bio rehash.  Their emergence is fully documented, rising from the college bar circuit in Ohio, riding the currents of fortune on wings of their energy and inventiveness.  They were the prototype for the modern, self-starting band:  taking charge of their fate, working the Internet, building an identifiable sound on a foundation of fresh rock/reggae fusion and songs that were fully accessible yet teasingly elusive, not waiting for the industry to catch up but pushing their album sales through boundless dedication, initiative, and word of mouth.

Their road took them from one milestone to the next:  a debut at No. 11 on the Internet sales chart for Risen in 2001; Any Time Now launching at No. 4 on Billboard's "Heatseekers,"  topping 100,000 sales in 2002, and in early 2006 receiving RIAA Gold certification, unheard of for a total indie album; their major label debut with In Between Now and Then in '03...

Looking back, all of it seemed to lead toward one special night, early last year.

The Place

"I remember when the idea came up to play the Garden," Roberge says.  "It seemed like a pipe dream, but then we figured that maybe we could play at the theater there.  Then somebody said, 'You know, I think we could do the arena, if we block half of it off.'  Then tickets started flying and we ended up selling the whole thing out."
For Roberge, this was pure fantasy, hard to believe even after the successes O.A.R. had enjoyed.  A transplanted New Yorker, hailing from Maryland but at home on the streets of his Lower Manhattan neighborhood, he had none of the native-born tendency to take the wonders of the city for granted.  "For three months I'd been watching this show, The 50 Greatest Moments in Madison Square Garden," he says.  "It just made me more and more excited as we got closer to doing our own show."

On that date, January 14, 2006, they packed the place with 17,000 fans.  "We were over the moon," he continues.  "And then, when this year came about, we decided to do it again, but this time to make a live record out of it.  Then we started thinking about filming it, but we didn't want to do it half-assed. If we were going to do it, we had to go all-out, do it all the way."

That meant finding a director who shared their enthusiasm, knew what they needed, and had a plan for how to make it happen.

The Director

No one has filmed concert events more consistently and creatively than Sam Erickson.  His rÈsumÈ includes directing videos for Good Charlotte, John Mayer, and Keith Urban, documentaries about My Morning Jacket, Bon Jovi, and the Dave Matthews Band, two-hour specials on Bravo about Jon Bon Jovi and Kris Kristofferson, and live DVDs that starred Mayer, Good Charlotte, Chevelle, Bruce Hornsby, and Sister Hazel.

"When we first got together with Sam," Roberge reports, "we made it clear that we didn't want this to be like just watching a band play onstage.  We also didn't want it to be a typical music video, where you can't really follow anything that's going on.  What we wanted was to give the people who watched this DVD a night they'd never forget, just like the people who would be with us in the Garden that night."

Before show time, Erickson dispatched several different crews out into the streets, even out of town, and onto the bus that carried O.A.R. from its gig the previous night at the Patriot Center in Virginia to its arrival at five in the morning in New York.  Planned as a 12-camera shoot, it wasn't enough to document the show; they had to get into its bloodstream and ride through the body of the experience.

The Night

From the second he left the stage at the Patriot Center on January 26, 2007, practically until he stood poised to enter the Garden the following night, Roberge doesn't remember any of what happened to him.  He knows he went home, took a nap, went to soundcheck, did an interview, but all of it is a blur now, melted into one day-long effort to focus, stay relaxed yet get pumped up, and be ready to hit the stage at full speed.

The favorites were all there:  "That Was a Crazy Game of Poker," "Love and Memories," "Heard the World," "City on Down."

But they decided to risk including some unfamiliar material, too:  "Something Coming Over," a recent addition, and "Living in the End," which they wrote more than two years ago but had never put on disc.  "Lots of bands wouldn't do that," Roberge says, "but we wanted to give the audience something extra."

The Audience

More than most live shows you've seen on disc or tape, Live From Madison Square Garden's "Behind the Backline" belongs nearly as much to the fans as to the band.  Throughout the more than two hours of music, there are innumerable shots taken from the middle of the crowd, inches from people standing in their seats, brought to a fervor of communion with the band. Watching the party grow as 18 songs blow by, you feel less like you're in your living room and more like you're right there, in each moment as it happens.


The Verdict?

Roberge smiles before answering:  "I'd be lying if I said this was just another gig. I mean, you want to say it's a regular show... but it wasn't.  We knew this would be the biggest show we'd played in a year, so we poured everything we had into it.  We put everything else aside and said, that one night, 'This is the most important thing in my world.'"

Those feelings - of ambition, daring, exhilaration, and accomplishment - course through "Behind The Backline."  This is a movie you don't just watch; you live it, as it happens, and take it home to savor once it's done.

And that's the truth.

5/07

Marc Roberge: vocals, electric & acoustic guitar
Richard On: electric guitar, background vocals
Jerry DePizzo: saxophone
Benj Gershman: bass
Chris Culos: drums

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