This week I had the pleasure of talking with the guitarist of the popular college rock band O.A.R. (Of A Revolution). The band recently released their sixth studio album, “All Sides,” in July and it debuted at #13 on the Billboard charts. If that’s not an eye opener, then consider them playing sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and opening for the Dave Matthews Band as solid evidence of their recent dominance. As of late, they have partnered with Reverb, an enviromental-savy concert touring group, for the third time, and are heading out on the Campus Consciousness Tour on November 1st. The tour, which is making many stops at universities all over the country, will stop at UMaine on November 17th, and Richard speaks for the lot when he says they’re excited for a return trip to the great Northeast.
Free Press: Heard you guys are making your way up to our neck of the woods again pretty soon.
Richard: We are! On the 17th I believe.
FP: Cool. What do you guys think of good old Maine?
R: Maine’s great. I think the whole music scene in the northeast is a pretty cool place to be touring. You know, we tour depending on the season and depending on what part of the country, but we always look forward to tour the northeast.we’re pretty excited.
FP: Good thing it’s not the middle of the winter just yet.
R: Haha, yea, it could definitely be much colder.
FP: So where are you guys right now?
R: We’re actually all at home, in all our designated cities. We all live in different areas so we’ll all be meeting up for the first show on November 1st in Madison, Wisconsin.
FP: Halloween in Madison is quite the experience.
R: Yeah, I remember when we were at Ohio State, everyone went to Madison just to party there for Halloween, it’s pretty crazy.
FP: So the tour is called the Campus Consciousness Tour. What is it all about?
R: It’s basically an attempt to turn a tour “green” by using things such as bio-diesel, recycling, and trying to reduce our carbon footprint while we tour. When bands go on tour, there’s usually a lot of wasteful things that could be prevented, and we’re trying to help spearhead that, along with Reverb, to make people aware of what we’re doing and what they could be doing to help the environment.
FP: That’s awesome. Do your buses run on bio-diesel?
R: Well, the thing about bio-diesel is that it’s not heavily available, so you can’t always use bio-diesel and you can’t always route your tours around where you can fill up. But, what we’re working on now is making sure that some buses can run on a combination of bio-diesel and regular fuel.
FP: You guys just got added to the MTV Concert for the Vets. How did it feel to be in the midst of such a large group of celebrities?
R: It was definitely interesting to see the show with all those characters running around. You know, we’re not usually associated with a lot of the mainstream bands that are pretty much brand names, but it was all for the same cause and the whole experience was completely positive.
FP: Well, it was for a good cause.
R: Yes. Bringing awareness to how hard it is for our troops when they come home, you know, making sure that veterans, when they come home, can get the best heath care they could possibly get, whether they can afford it or not. That shouldn’t be a problem, and the whole event was very supportable.
FP: Well, keep up the good work.
R: Thank you, look forward to being in Maine again.
O.A.R. will be at the UMaine Feildhouse on Nov. 17 Tickets are $20 for all college students in Maine and $30 for general public and are available at umainetix.com and Bull Moose Music.