Word: oar
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...OAR were vibrant last Wednesday night. The band was strong and proud through the fear that lingered behind their lyrics. Though their words teetered on the brink of despair, they walked confidently through that valley of death...
When they came to see Of A Revolution (OAR) last Wednesday night at the Roxy, they came to abandon something. For one evening, they came to let go of the details of their lives, the clutter of things and people that bind them to place and to the inertia of their day-to-day existence. They threw themselves into the rhythm and followed it wherever it took them. And for a few brief moments, they actually believed they were lost, that there was nowhere and nothing but the music rising in them...
...musically, they are a talented bunch. But what makes OAR such a phenomenon, what drives teenagers in droves to their shows and inspires college students to blast their MP3s as they drink themselves into oblivion, is precisely that hint—as their name suggests—of a revolution. But OAR is not a revolution against anything concrete. It is not against governments or against people. They do not rage against the machine. Instead, they sing of a struggle that rages within ourselves. OAR is born of a revolution against everything that is superfluous to who we are?...
...order to evoke this sense of total abandonment, OAR must at times resort to casually violent language like, “he hit me across the face with a bat.” The violence of OAR’s revolution appeals to a youthful audience as a cathartic gesture, an expression of anger against the things that hold them inside. Through the music, it is transformed from a destructive urge to tear down walls to an empowering image of freedom and self-expression. Unlike Nirvana, whose anger often manifested itself physically on stage in the form of smashing guitars...
Although the primary appeal of OAR seems to be thematic, their talent as musicians cannot and should not be overlooked. OAR has a fresh sound that is a unique blend of rock and reggae, mixing rasta rhythms with driving rock riffs. They combine standard instrumentation—drums, electric guitars and bass—with bits of vocal scat like “skittleedat dat dat, well how ‘bout that?” which augment a strong lyrical use of rhyme and alliteration. They also have a saxophone to inject a little bit of jazz into...