By Ali Destrempe, Staff Writer
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Photos by Kristen Hartwell |
| Students and fans watch O.A.R. perform at Ross Sports Center on Friday, April 27. |
The band Of A Revolution, O.A.R., performed Friday night in the Ross Sports Center in one of the biggest concerts in recent college history.
“In technical terms, this concert was by far the biggest with lighting, sound, staging than past years’ shows,” said Jennie Cernosia, director of Student Activities and Student Association adviser.
It took a great amount of time and energy for the Student Association to put on the event.
“We have been working on it since early February, and talked about it since early January,” Michael DeGrandpre, hospitality manager for the concert, said.
O.A.R. played for about two hours with a set list of 15 songs and two encores. The normal set ended at 11 p.m., and the fans chanted for an encore for a few minutes before the band came back out to play “Rhythm of Your Shoes” into the band’s most populat song, “Crazy Game of Poker.”
Throughout the regular set, the band opened with “52-50” and “Love and Memories,” two songs off its
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| O.A.R.’s Mark Roberge sings and plays the guitar. |
latest album, “Stories of Strangers.” “Love and Memories,”
the bands most mainstream hit, which has been receiving air time since it came out last spring.
Deeper into the set, the band went into some more lengthy songs including, “Whose Chariot?” and “City On Down.” It ended the set with one of the band’s most popular hits, “Hey Girl,” which was released on its album “Risen,” but grew in popularity off its live recording on “Any Time Now.”
Even though the concert was held during P-Day weekend, it was not a part of P-Day, DeGrandpre said. The concert usually falls at different time of year, but occurred P-Day weekend due to O.A.R.’s availability.
It was unfavorable that the concert was held the same weekend, Cernosia said.
“It is a lot of money for one weekend,” she said.
Student activity fees helped fund the concert, but the S.A. relied manly on ticket sales. Prior to the day of the show, there were 1,600 tickets sold. When the show began at 8 p.m., ticket sales were over 2,000.
S.A. President-elect Alex Monahan said the concert was a success towards the end of the night, and he was pleased with the amount of ticket sales.
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| O.A.R.’s Benji Gershman plays the base guitar. |
Several students arrived late and missed Ludo, the opening act. Sophomore Sarah Ryan thought the Ludo’s sound differed from O.A.R.’s.
“The first act was more rocky. Definitely different. I didn’t really care for them,” she said. “The vibe was completely different than O.A.R.”
An assortment of colored lights beamed down, against the black curtain that draped in the background. Students screamed and raised hands when favorite songs were played. The venue was totally dark, except for flashes of light which hit the faces of the audience when the percussionist, Chris Culos, drummed a hard beat.
Monahan said he was very happy with the turnout of the concert.
“I am very excited to see all the hard work come together to see an amazing show, and it definitely was amazing,” he said.
Additional reporting by Laura Tuveson,
sports editor
Contact Ali Destrempe at adestrempe@smcvt.edu
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