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average set but a fun show as usual. Marc really needs to stop freestyling. He does it way too much now and it is embarrassing. Their jams are getting a little stale imo. The first 6 or so songs literally followed the exact same pattern and featured drawn out arrangements and a Marc freestyle. They should realize that it's o.k. to play some songs w/o jams attached. I'm all for extending things, but half of their jams feel too rehearsed and like they are just tacked on to the song. Cut out the needless freestyling and identical solos from a bunch of songs and play more tunes instead

Sorry, it's my opinion. It should stay around in select songs not in the vast majority. The freestyles aren't very unique anymore and his themes are almost identical song to song with them. It's tiresome for every song to follow the same pattern. I think it'd be much better if he only did it in a few songs. Some of the stuff that came out of his mouth in Hartford was mind boggling. When you try to do it too much you ruin the uniqueness and also start to stretch for things to say. This spawns gems like "You're sweet like a cupcake and I want to eat you up".

As I said, I don't think it should completely disappear (it's a moot point either way b/c it's not going anywhere), I just don't think it has a place in every song. It works really well in some songs, like Untitled, and others it is pointless in. Where we disagree is in the freestyling breaking up the pattern as you stated. The first 5 songs of this show literally followed an almost identical song pattern. Bulk of the song->short bass breakdown w/ Chris reggae beat->Soloing->Marc Freestyle. I guess what I'm trying to say overall is that when you freestyle so much it becomes much more hit or miss. Some versions of songs will absolutely kick ass, and others can fall very flat. This particular night I didn't find any of them to be very good which is why I brought it up in the first place. There was just a strong sense of predictability with the "jam" sections of the songs, if you will. And as far as listening to the cd instead of live, I obviously don't want the song to sound identical live to the studio recording otherwise there would be no point to going to shows. I do however want the additions to live up to the songs they are attached to and take it to new heights. Sometimes I feel like there's a new jam or breakdown just for the sake of having one and it doesn't really add anything to the songs. One that I particularly don't care for, for example, is freestyled lyrics at the end of I Feel Home. The song itself conveys a great message and gets his point across. But then he just sort of rambles on after the bulk of it is over with some cliched and redundant words. That to me can take away from a performance as opposed to enhancing it. We obviously are on opposite sides of the spectrum and to each his own, but that's just more of a detailed perspective on why I feel that way. Regardless, they're still a very fun band and I appreciate the effort and the liveliness that all of their shows have. Some other bands could definitely learn from O.A.R's enthusiasm and crowd interaction at concerts.