Seeing a Group Transform On Stage and Off

When I was an undergrad, I spent a couple years working tech crew, which included setting up and taking down various apparatuses and equipment for all of the major concerts that passed through my college. While it was far from my favorite show, one of the scenes I best remember from this experience was KC and the Sunshine Band concert. The band performed with far greater energy than what might expect from people their age. I was backstage by the time they performed their encore and in perfect position to see front man Harry Wayne Casey climb off stage and recede from the public eye. I watched as a man who had just entertained an audience of thousands seemingly shrank before my eyes, from master showman to sweat-soaked, exhausted, middle-aged man, struggling to catch his breath.

Watching professional, collegiate, and high school a cappella groups strut their stuff on stage, it’s easy to forget that these masterful musicians and charismatic performers, are, in all reality, just regular human beings when they step off stage. The a cappella form is nothing if not underappreciated—a genre full of talented people, most of who cannot make a living based on their performance art, but pursue it just the same for the love of the art and opportunity to share their music with an audience. Thus, the practitioners of a cappella may be larger than life in the spotlight but are, by and large, everyday people when they get backstage. Seeing this transformation, and the truly humble, awesome people that make this music happen is, itself, pretty awe inspiring.

I love it!