O.A.R.

O.A.R. formed in 1996 in Rockville, Maryland, around Marc Roberge's vocals and guitar, with Chris Culos on drums, Richard On on guitar, and Benj Gershman on bass. After high school the founding members moved to Columbus to attend Ohio State University, where they met saxophonist Jerry DePizzo, who joined in 2000 and completed the sound. Their 1997 debut The Wanderer introduced "That Was a Crazy Game of Poker," the sprawling storytelling epic that became a setlist staple, still played at most of their concerts.

The rise was entirely grassroots. In the early years there was no MTV, no radio push—the band itself credits the recording, trading, and downloading of its live shows for its popularity. Bootlegs and burned CD-Rs passed through dorm rooms; the band's college-town following grew show by show until O.A.R. was a full-blown campus phenomenon of the early 2000s. It was a closed-loop fandom: you got a recommendation from a friend, you got handed a disc, and then you were the one burning copies.

The arrival moment came on January 14, 2006, when O.A.R. sold out Madison Square Garden, drawing roughly 18,000 fans—mainstream acknowledgment of a decade of underground devotion, captured on a live album released the next year. Radio finally caught up too: "Love and Memories" (2005) reached #30 on Modern Rock Tracks, and "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)" (2008) climbed to #2 on Adult Top 40 and went platinum. For the fans who'd been trading tapes since the dorm days, the hits were almost beside the point—proof that word-of-mouth alone could fill an arena.