Janine Schaults

O.A.R.'s "crazy game of poker" sure paid off in dividends since the Maryland-born, Ohio-based band released its seventh studio album, "Stories of a Stranger," in 2005 and the single, "Love and Memories," became a standby on Top 40 radio.

Always a touring band, these road warriors hope to once again sell out New York's Madison Square Garden. Last January O.A.R., which stands for Of A Revolution, filled every seat in the legendary house. The challenge awaits them at the end of this month.

"It was far beyond our expectations," saxophonist Jerry DePizzo says, calling from his home in Ohio. "This year we kept those same kinds of expectations. I think it's even more of an accomplishment to do it the second time around, to sort of solidify that it wasn't an anomaly."

DePizzo and vocalist Marc Roberge, guitarist Richard On, bassist Benj Gershman and drummer Chris Culos earned their reputation as a live favorite through a grassroots trajectory of continuously playing for mostly college-age audiences over the last decade that support the band largely through word-of-mouth.

But some fans were disheartened by the commercial success that followed the band's singing to a record label and the new songs, which seemingly catered to radio airplay, especially since bringing in hit-maker Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette, Michael Jackson) as a co-writer on two tracks. The band doesn't shy away from the criticism.

"I think that was something that we owned up to and said right from the beginning that yeah, there's three songs on that record that we wrote for the radio," DePizzo says. "If anyone thinks it's easy to write a pop song, I challenge them to go do it. To write a song that's acceptable to a large amount of people-it's a challenge and it's something that we want to challenge ourselves with."

Currently at work on the follow-up to "Stories of a Stranger," O.A.R. looks to continue to strike a balance between its reggae-infused rock and poppier side.

"We proved to ourselves that we're able to step outside of the box...and write radio songs, so I think part of that is just naturally going to be ingrained in what we do now," DePizzo says. I think any kind of radio success that we have with this record is going to be a tribute to the last one."

O.A.R. plays January 19 at the UIC Pavilion, 1150 West Harrison, (312)413-5740, at 7pm.

(2007-01-16)

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