Thirty years is a long time to be a working band. Most outfits that started in a Maryland basement in 1996 didn’t survive their first van. O.A.R. — Of A Revolution — not only survived but built a career substantial enough to warrant a national touring retrospective: the Three Decades Tour, a summer-into-fall run that makes its Western New York stop at Artpark Amphitheater in Lewiston on Saturday, September 12.
The Rockville quartet has always occupied an interesting lane — alt-rock scaffolding over reggae and jam-band instincts, with songs like “Shattered,” “Crazy Game of Poker,” and the gold-certified “Love and Memories” that found their way onto radio without the band fully abandoning their college-circuit roots. Founders Marc Roberge, Richard On, Chris Culos, and Benj Gershman have anchored the lineup since the start, with saxophonist Jerry DePizzo joining in 2000 — a continuity that tends to show on stage. The Three Decades Tour carries genuine milestone momentum: the band released new single “Where We Are Right Now” alongside the October 2025 tour announcement, then marked the occasion further with a 20th Anniversary reissue of Stories of a Stranger through Craft Recordings — a two-LP set in a gatefold jacket, padded out with live cuts and a long-out-of-print bonus EP.
Roberge put it plainly in the tour announcement: “This tour is our way of saying thank you — to every fan who made our dreams come true.”
Opening the evening at Artpark are Gavin DeGraw and KT Tunstall — a stacked bill in its own right. DeGraw brings the weight of a genuine pop-rock breakthrough in Chariot, while Tunstall, the Scottish singer-songwriter whose live BBC performance of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” became its own cultural moment, arrives with multiple BRIT Awards behind her. That’s three sets worth of radio staples before the headliner takes the gorge.
Artpark sits within a state park above the Niagara River gorge — a setting that distinguishes it from nearly every other summer shed on the circuit. Blankets are permitted on the lawn; chairs are not. Doors and showtime run from 6:30 PM.
Tickets start at $51.50 for general admission grass, with front-of-stage standing at $86.00 and reserved seating at $106.00. Get Tickets