Unlike so many artists that are quick to forget their back catalogs once they’ve had a mainstream hit, O.A.R. chose to remember their rich repertoire over generating easy applause from the newly anointed during their Aug. 10 performance at the Tweeter Center on The Waterfront in Camden, NJ.
At a nearly sold out show, the band dove into passionate renditions of that morphed into sing alongs with the devoted audience. After starting off the show with somber “City On Down,” the band soon was jamming away on energetic crowd pleasers such as “Hey Girl and “Wonderful Day.”
Like the seasoned pros that they are, the band moved effortlessly through a 14 song set with fire and electricity. The band proved to be in rare form, even for their usual musical excellence with Jerry DePizzo’s incendiary saxophone playing being described as “Gangsta” by one concert attendee.
Other highlights included what another concert attendee claimed was the best performance of the classic “Lay Down” that they had heard after attending over a dozen O.A.R. shows in their lifetime.
All of those in attendance, both the longstanding hardcore fan base and those that have only recently jumped onto the O.A.R. bandwagon, danced and sang merrily along with every masterfully performed note.
It wasn’t until nearly the end of the band’s hour and a half long set that they elected to perform “Love And Memories.” The song that many other artists would have opened their set with was masterfully mixed in with other band classics.
For that matter, the set all but ignored the current Stories Of A Stranger, honoring their longstanding rabid fan base over the newcomers in attendance, a curiosity given the album’s smashing success this summer.
The audience continued to dance in a frenzied matter as the band encored with “Princess Valarie,” “That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker” and “Daylight The Dog.”
