O.A.R. Jammed Out at the Armory

Howdy Folks!

This was a super fun night over at the Armory, with performances by KT Tunstall, Gavin Degraw, and, of course O.A.R.!

Tunstall opened up the night for us with a really fun interactive solo set, utilizing loop pedals and creating her own atmosphere and backing tracks for the whole show. It was a lot of fun to see her set up the tracks and then really get into it layer after layer, until you were just jamming along with her.

Initially, admittedly, with both of the opening acts, I did not know them by name, but I sure did know them by song, and with KT, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, and Suddenly I See were immediately recognizable, and it was fun to hear live!

KT gave a great opening to the rest of this show, filled with basically live jam sessions, and was the perfect act to get the crowd ready for that style of night!

Our next act, Gavin Degraw, came on stage to a huge crowd already formed, and while I had not recognized them by name, once I heard them I realized that they were incredibly popular! I also started to really see where bands like Maroon 5 got their inspiration from; in all honesty, Adam Levine definitely draws some vocal inspiration from Degraw and his crazy range.
This set was super bubbly, with band members moving across the stage the whole time, getting close to the crowd, and also having super rad solos back and forth constantly. Degraw himself was also busting out his vocal chops, showing off his incredible range, and piano playing as well, and the whole set felt like a great feature for him.

I’m personally a big fan of bands that can get on stage and act like they’re just jamming and nothing has really changed, and this band definitely knocked that out of the park for me. The crowd also was enraptured by the performance and had some great call-and-response moments that were fun to watch and listen to from the back of it all. Overall, super solid fun set, and I would love to see them again!

Finally, our headliner for the night came on to an absolutely packed crowd, and O.A.R. immediately jumped into the grooves right away.

This band looked to be having a ton of fun, and the crowd was in kind as well. Pretty much every word was being sung along with by the crowd, and i saw a ton of people just swaying along to the beat- O.A.R. definitely have mastered getting the crowd to jump into their vibe.

This was yet another case of seeing a band that’s great at just having fun on stage and grooving right along, and I found myself many times in the photo pit just pausing for a sec and smiling along to how much fun the band was having. My personal favorite was watching the saxophone and trumpet players (who make this music really pop, in my opinion) and how emotive they were and jamming together.

The lead singer as well had so much emotion in his voice, and really portrayed it in his face as well, so watching him perform was also a great show for everyone.

The set was definitely a long one; most of their songs are pretty loose and freeform to some degree, never really following the same pattern, and letting the music itself just kind of fill the space, which was honestly pretty refreshing to see and hear.

They played so many of their popular songs, but of course ended on the very popular Crazy Game of Poker, which I know I myself was most looking forward to for the show. Overall, a super fun band, vibe, and performance were put on by them as a whole, and I know i’d love to see them again (definitely going to see about catching a Red Rocks show as a treat!).