At a glance
When Jerry DePizzo befriended Marc Roberge at Ohio State University’s freshman orientation in 1998, he thought he’d found a friend to join him for a romp down High Street.
“We had some extra time at the end of all this stuff and said, ‘Why don’t we run around?’” DePizzo said. “(We) had a good old time.”
A few years later, Roberge would be the friend who joined DePizzo to perform for 20,000 people.
On Saturday, their band will headline a benefit for local outreach Flying Horse Farms in Mount Gilead, a camp for children with acute illnesses. The concert will take place at L Brands’ headquarters near Easton
DePizzo had always dreamed of playing music professionally, but his Flying Horse Farms Campfire Columbus benefit featuring O.A.R. L Brands headquarters, 3 Limited Parkway 419-751-7077, www.flyinghorsefarms.org 6 p.m. Saturday $200, or $150 for those 35 or younger
concerned parents steered him toward something more stable: informationmanagement systems.
He moved into Morrill Tower, conveniently located near Roberge and Roberge’s three friends — Benj Gershman, Chris Culos and Richard On — who maintained their high-school band, O.A.R.
DePizzo veered away from his safe plans and jumped into the band on saxophone.
His parents needn’t have worried.
O.A.R. (officially titled “Of a Revolution”) sold out several shows at Newport Music Hall while the quintet was still in school. In 2002, the group cracked the Billboard chart at No. 156 with its fourth studio album, “Between Now and Then.”
Like current local phenomenon Twenty One Pilots, the group reached the big time through smart publicity starting at the local level. DePizzo credits musicstreaming website Napster (once a home for personal file sharing, a practice that created copyright-infringement legal difficulties) with spreading the band’s music across college campuses, where O.A.R. first became popular.
DePizzo thinks the band could use the same principles if it were starting out today, but perhaps with even more success.
“I think the potential would be even greater because of the connectivity between people,” said DePizzo, 36. “The previous generations were ‘Let me burn a cassette,’ and that turned into ‘Let me rip it off the internet.’ Today, it’s evolved much beyond that.”
Known for their danceable, summer-vibes live performances — especially the freewheeling track “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker,” known to clock in at 20 minutes long — the band has since grown big enough to add a lineup of touring backup musicians.
In 2011, DePizzo found trumpeter Jon Lampley — then a junior at Ohio State and now part of the on-air band on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” — who fit the “young, hungry” description DePizzo wanted in a performer.
He still remembers the first show for Lampley and the other new musicians at the Dave Matthews Band Caravan at Governors Island, New York.
“When ‘Poker’ hit, they just stopped and stared, kind of (like) frozen deer in headlights,” DePizzo said. “It was great to create those moments for those guys.”
DePizzo’s willingness to cede the spotlight mirrors the band’s commitment to behindthe-scenes good deeds.
From working with national home-building charity Habitat for Humanity to the group’s own charity, Heard the World, O.A.R. remains involved, as demonstrated by Saturday’s performance.
Musically, the band is a natural fit for the positive-outreach setting.
Even lovelorn breakup songs such as “Shattered (Turn the Car Around)” manage enough bouncy guitarchord progressions to sound like a windowsdown summer hit.
The band’s partyready sound is all thanks to Roberge, the lead singer and songwriter, DePizzo said.
“Marc’s an optimist at the end of the day,” he said. “He always looks for the silver lining. I think that’s one of the central threads throughout all of our music.”
The cheerfulness inherent in their jam-band rock tunes seeps into the band members’ relationships, which retain the closeness they had as 20-year-old college students.
Although DePizzo lives in Worthington and the other members are scattered from New York City to Nashville, Tennessee, they’re in constant contact.
“When we take a break and go back home, the distance really doesn’t feel that far,” he said. “We talk on a daily basis about music, about the business side of what we do, (and) about the fairly ridiculous stuff we see on Instagram.”