Eagle-Tribune Blogs: Pop

Spoke to Benj Gershman recently, bass player for O.A.R..
The band  — Marc Roberge (vocals, electric & acoustic guitar), Richard On (electric guitar & background vocals), Jerry  DePizzo (saxophone) and Chris Culos (drums) formed in 1996 while still in high school.
Gershman remembered those teen years quite well.
The moment he said yes to O.A.R, he was a 16-year-old, lifeguarding with drummer Chris Culos at the very end of summer after his sophomore year.
Culos was talking about the band’s need for a bass player. Gershman said he was a bass player. The rest is history.
Now 28, Gershman said everything was going great on O.A.R’s current tour, which stops in Hampton Aug. 5.
“Just kind of chugging along. We started in June, went for a month. We had a week and a half off, our drummer got married. Now we’re out for the second leg,” he said in a recent phone interview.
Did O.A.R. play the wedding? Nope.
“He (Culos) wanted the night off,” Gerhman said with a laugh.
Before the tour, the members worked on the new album, which hit stores earlier this month.
“We accomplished the goal of having all sides of O.A.R. represented on one disc,” Gershman said, alluding to the name of the album.
One the songs on the album getting the most attention is “War Song.” It’s something the band came up with after a solo USO tour to the Middle East.
“The lyrics came from seeing all thee people fighting the war over there, their lives and how they are forever changed by the experience,” Gershman said. “It wasn’t like anything we had ever done before, being in a war zone. It was intense, it was very meaningful to be able to be there and be able to play for our troops.”

Here are a few facts about O.A.R.:

• Recently released “All Sides” on  Everfine/Atlantic Records.
• Debuted at No. 39 on Billboard’s Top 200
• Has 135,000 friends on MySpace
• Since 2003 band has averaged 90 shows per year and over 250,000 in attendance
• The band sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City in January of 2006 and January 2007s
• The name: O. – A. – R. stands for “of a revolution”
• Recorded and released their first independent record (”The Wanderer”) in 1997, while still in high school
• Sold over 300,000 units independently prior to signing with Lava Records in 2003

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