Guest ICCA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinals at Syracuse University
The A Cappella Blog welcomes Melissa Rashford, a five-time ICCA competitor and former director of the Syracuse University Mandarins, for a guest review of this past Saturday's competition
Someday, I hope to get my act together and apply to be an ICCA judge. For now, I will have to settle for going to shows and pretending that I’m a judge, and hoping that someone is nice enough to post my opinions for all the world to disagree with.
My night started in the lobby of Setnor Auditorium, where members of Orange Appeal asked me if I was reviewing the show for the ACB (yes I am, so you should probably sing in tune, thanks!) and a couple of out-of-towners complained loudly about how hard the building was to find (okay, I know I went to school here, but plan ahead and print a campus map next time). Upon entering the Aud, I was oh-so-thrilled to discover that the heat hadn’t made its way to the balconies, nor were the lights turned on. You can also imagine how happy I was when the show started at approximately 8:12…does nothing start on time anymore? The only thing this wait did was cement my hatred for ‘Other Side of the World’ by KT Tunstall. (Thanks, BOCA 2008!)
This show looked good on paper. Six groups (the way it should be, makes for a nice even show), three all-male, two mixed, and one female group. Add in Orange Appeal – in my opinion, the perfect group to host one of these things. They’re entertaining, the set is catchy, and they’re usually better than the groups performing. They opened the show with ‘Come Sail Away’, complete with crazy ballet intro and ridiculous choreography. (I love the ending spirit fingers.) Two of the senior OA guys took on emcee duties for the night and away we went.
Up first were the Villanova Spires, an all-male group who charged the stage in flight suits and aviator sunglasses. I’m not kidding. When I’m a judge I am really going to push for a Best Dressed award, because these guys looked a-ma-zing. The suits even had NOVA written down the left sleeve. I just loved it. But, on to the music. (You can check Mike’s review for each group’s specific set info.)
• I really thought their first song was fantastic. The soloist was awesome, the tenors were right on, the dissonant lines were clear and I pretty much loved everything about it. Tough to get me to pay attention especially when I don’t know the song, but the tenors sold me on this one. Although the soloist lost some of the notes in his lower register, I thought this song was an excellent pick to open the set and the show.
• The second song – ‘What I’ve Done’ by Linkin Park – was very ambitious. The guys had a ton of energy, and added robotic choreography to this one. I really liked the soloist for this one too, although I was worried he’d lose his high notes by the end. He pulled it off, and had good control. I felt this song was way too similar to Song 1, but oh well. There were some pitch problems between the group and the soloist in the bridge, but overall, it was decent. It made me wish that some group would do ‘Shadow of the Day’, which I like infinitely better.
• Villanova closed the set with ‘U+Me = Us (Calculus)’. Now, I don’t know if I’m just old or what, but I was embarrassed by the people at intermission asking each other if the song was by the Backstreet Boys. I think this song is hilarious – that said, it was completely wrong for an ICCA show. I put this in the category of “People Will Love This At Your Home School But It’s Not Musical Enough For Competition”. While it was an entertaining choice, the guys’ voices came across very muddy on the mics and there wasn’t much going on musically. Props to the lead five guys – the choreography was great and they danced their asses off. Unfortunately it left the guys in the back to just kind of stand there. Again, entertaining, but not for this level of competition.
Overall – loved the flight suits, thought the soloists were pretty decent, but nothing wowed me other than the Calculus choreography. Wait, no – they also had the funniest bio in the program.
Next came the Pitt Pendulums, clad in Pitt t-shirts and jeans. Maybe I’ve just spent too many years at SU, but the two girls wearing UGG boots stuck out like sore thumbs. Add that to the one girl who cut up her t-shirt all 80s style, and I was not loving the wardrobe on this group.
• Pitt opened with a step break, which made no sense whatsoever. It seemed very cliché to me and had nothing to do with their first song, straight-out-of-the-90s ‘All That She Wants’. The VP was kind of weak and I’m not sure the entire group knew which parts of the song were supposed to be in major versus minor. There was an awkward free boogie dance break towards the end that I didn’t care for either. The best parts of this song were the girl that whistled and the creepy guy that whispered the song title from various locales throughout the song. The soloist could’ve belted a little more at the end; it’s possible that the song went sharp, but if you have to sing the big notes in your head voice, it loses power.
• Pitt set up off-center for the next two songs, which bothered me a lot, but anyway on to ‘Wordplay’ by Jason Mraz. Interesting choice, since Mraz doesn’t really sing at all except for the choruses. And forgive me for saying this, but as he is one of my favorite artists ever, you really need to pick a soloist that has a similar voice in order to pull it off. The soloist had a nice voice but it just wasn’t the right tone for this song. The girl doing VP was pretty decent, but the tempo was always a bit off on the stop-time ends of phrases (“out-the-stops” and “drop-my-top”). I’m sure things like that are only noticeable to nitpicky Mraz fans like myself, so let’s move on.
• Pitt closed the show with Bon Jovi. The only thing I liked about this song was the girls who sang ‘bang bang’ and pretended to shoot off guns after the ‘shot through the heart’ parts. Cute. I was totally distracted by the people in the background that couldn’t dance. Bending your knees on the beat is so, so awkward. A few nice things happened in this song, including crescendos throughout the arrangement. They could’ve done without the guy singing the guitar solo, though (again, better for a school show). I also couldn’t figure out why the girl whose only purpose was to sing the ‘ohhhh’ harmony before “you’re a loaded gun” walked up to the mic just to sing that one note. Stand still and project! It made zero sense to walk all the way up to the mic for one harmony part that everyone knows is there and is high enough that it’ll carry over the group anyway. Pitt sealed the deal for me with the clichéd (their word, not mine) “key changes” at the end of the song, although if you’re just moving up half-steps and everyone’s singing in octaves, it’s really not a key change, is it? (I could’ve been sitting in a dead sound zone, but I really don’t think there were chords in this part at all. My bad if there were.)
Overall – if this was the first ICCA outing for this group, hopefully they watched some of the more veteran performers to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. The girls need to loosen up a little bit and not dance so stiffly, and next time maybe a wardrobe change would help with that. I thought Pitt looked bored and I was bored as a result.
On to Group 3, Albany’s Serendipity. Everyone knows that I have very strong opinions about female groups, and when their bio said that they have “made it their personal crusade to bring sexy back”, I just knew they weren’t going to work for me. The girls looked great, in all black with splashes of lime green. However, their set didn’t do anything for me or the audience.
• The girls opened with ‘Candyman’ by Christina Aguilera, and I’m sorry, if you’re going to go for this you really, really have to go for it 100%. I’ve seen a ton of groups over the years and the only group that could even remotely pull this off in a fashion I’d like to see is the girls’ group that won at Finals last year. This group was just too cutesy for this to work. I know the song is supposed to be that kind of style, but it’s still Christina, isn’t it? The backing trio was cute and sounded decent, but the quick choreography in the rest of the group was distracting and the soloist couldn’t quite find the key when she wasn’t singing melody. I found this song very blah. Maybe it needed VP? I don’t know. The girls changed some of the lyrics as well, which I thought was an appropriate decision on their part. The simpler choreography (mimicking fainting, for example) was effective but overall this song epitomized why a lot of people don’t take girls’ groups seriously.
• ‘Still Fighting It’ by Ben Folds came up next, which I thought was a great choice by the group. I am a big fan of picking songs that are completely out of the ordinary, and I was pleasantly surprised by this selection. Unfortunately, I don’t think the group has ever actually heard this song. The VP was all poppy and upbeat, the girls were smiling, there was an uptempo step-touch during the chorus…hello, the lyrics are “everybody knows it sucks to grow up”! I was completely confused by their choices here, especially in terms of choreography and VP. I also think they should’ve keyed the song where the soloist could sing it. The girls had a great sound and blend on their background ‘oohs’ but it was totally overshadowed by the fact that none of them appeared to have a clue what the song was about.
• The girls finished their uber-pop set with Justin Timberlake. The soloist was the same as the first song (I think), the mic sound was muddied throughout, and the jumping of octaves during the melody was distracting and didn’t work at all. There was some weird Sharks vs. Jets choreography in the back that didn’t work for me. I thought the VP was hot, but the song was way over-choreographed and made the girls pretend to be more thug than they actually are. I’m also not sure why the ending closed with OneRepublic’s ‘Apologize’ other than the keys might be related…this is a kiss-off song…he doesn’t want her to apologize!
Overall – Serendipity is obviously trying really hard, and I give them a lot of credit for putting on a respectable performance. They really did look fantastic and you could tell they put a lot of work into their choreography. However, I’m not sure that the song selection did them any favors. The girls have a great sound, but for me, it was overshadowed by too much choreography and not really getting what their songs were about.
Snoozefest of an intermission. Is that a chick singing ‘You’ll Think of Me’ on BOCA 2008?
After the break came the Buffalo Chips. I have seen this group perform for 8 years or so and always look forward to hearing what songs they’re going to do. Unfortunately I didn’t know anything from their set except Song 3. Anyway, they looked kind of haphazard, in various blue striped button downs with jeans. At least they were all wearing black shoes. I appreciated that.
• I didn’t know the first song, but it was obviously Muse. The guys – only 11 in number – did an excellent job. The tenors were powerful, the soloist had an awesome tone, the dynamics were clear and solid. To me, the Chips are exactly what an a cappella group should sound like. It’s hard to explain, but they’re not too choral, they’re not too poppy – they’re in that perfect middle region where you can just tell that this is what this genre is all about.
• The guys made a quick transition into Song 2 and again, the group was just head and shoulders above what we had seen thus far. The VP was hot. The soloist had a wonderful tone and really good control over his falsetto. (My notes actually say ‘LOVE LOVE soloist’.) The guys’ blend was great. I loved everything about this song, from syllable selection to minimal choreography. I especially liked how the guys’ movement at the end transitioned into the beginning positions for the next song. Good way to save on time. You can totally tell that the Chips have been here before.
• Unfortunately for Serendipity, the Chips came out with the same JT song and did it 100 times better. Oh well. The soloist was decent, the harmony parts were right on, and this was the way that song should be done. The guys pulled out some Casual Harmony slide choreography in the back, which worked really well for this particular song. I really loved the arrangement on the chorus, building the chord from the top down. The choreography on the chorus was outstanding as well, complemented by the fact that every guy was into the hip-hop moves 110%. The tenors sounded great, the group looked great, and except for some funky chords on the bridge (I’m not sure either JT group knew what to do with the bridge), the execution was right on.
Overall - This, my friends, is how a set should go. Good song choices for these guys, good soloists, really solid choreography, and arrangements that were more interesting than anything we’d heard thus far. Great work.
Next up was Drew’s 36 Madison Avenue. 10 guys in all black and different colored satin ties, in stark contrast to the other two guys’ groups. With these outfits, I didn’t really expect their first song to be…
• ‘Instant Pleasure’ by Rufus Wainwright. Really, guys? Really? Not entirely appropriate for this kind of show. I kept thinking maybe they would change the lyrics, but they didn’t. Even Serendipity, in all of their saucy hotness or whatever else their bio said, didn’t keep the words to ‘Candyman’, and here I have a bunch of a cappella guys singing about sex? It was a little awkward for me, as I sat there and pretended to be a judge. However, I really liked the soloist and thought he did a great job selling the song. The rest of it was blah – the choreography was too silly for my tastes, the sample of ‘I Touch Myself’ was funny due to the song content but not too relevant other than that, and the guys had a huge tempo problem at the end where the solo and group were not in sync at all.
• 36 Mad Ave was the only group to talk in between songs, which I normally hate during ICCAs, but they seem like nice guys so I won’t complain about it here. I didn’t know their second song but again, I thought their soloist was fabulous. The guy and the group sounded great on whatever song it was. The only change I would’ve made here was putting the backing vocals closer to a mic – these two guys sounded awesome and were projecting really well but I still would’ve liked to hear their lines come out over the group a bit more than I did.
• You know what this show really needed? A Phil Collins song. Thank you, 36 Mad Ave…thank you. The guys closed with ‘Strangers Like Me’ interspersed with a little ‘Take Me Home’, and I loved it. The VP was perfect Phil Collins, and the soloist really gave it everything he had. His voice was a little on the classical side for me, and the line got a little high for him at the end, but overall this was a sweet arrangement and I liked the way the two songs worked together.
Overall – I think the guys picked the right songs to play up their strengths. I don’t know if I would’ve gone with their first song for this kind of a competition, but they had good energy, were fun to watch, and they sang Phil Collins! How can you go wrong?
The night ended with Kaskeset from Binghamton, who also had a pretty funny bio in the program (something about pretending to be the cast of Fiddler on the Roof). They looked really good, wearing all black with white flair. Loved the guy in the white suspenders!
• Song 1 was something in Hebrew. The female soloist was definitely right out of an American Idol audition. Very poppy, did a nice job overall. The choreography didn’t add anything to the song; honestly, it looked like they were making an exercise video. I am so not a fan of choreography for the sake of choreography. The best part of this song, by far, was the VP. The VP was sick. I don’t know your name, crazy white tie VP man, but you were amazing.
• Song 2 was ‘When You Believe’ from whatever movie it’s from. The soloist had a huge voice for being such a small girl, and I wish she would’ve stood still and sang rather than wandering around the stage. Oh well. I love a good chest bump perc as much as the next fan, so thanks to the two guys who threw that in. I pretty much hated the mime-in-a-box choreography that the girls in the front row were doing, mixed with whatever spirit fingers they threw in. Again, people, choreography for the sake of choreography is not a good idea. Although really, what else can you do with this song? I don’t know. Anyway, the whole group had a really young, poppy sound on this song. I don’t think the soloist got the memo about the key change, though. Oops.
• The group closed with ‘I’ll Cover You’ from RENT, and it was so cheesy that I don’t really have anything good to say about it. It was very uptempo, the soloists hugged at the end, and oh yeah, the girls blew the audience a thousand sweet kisses in the middle. Need I say more?
Overall – Oh, Kaskeset. I want to like you, I do. You looked so good, but your choreography was just so bad. You sounded decent, though, so maybe you’ll place. Depends on what the judges think about your song choices.
Orange Appeal came out and sang every song they know during the judge’s deliberations. Highlights included ‘God Save the Queen’, throwback ‘Stacy’s Mom’, their new Fall Out Boy song , ‘No Diggity’ (perfect example of a song that works at a school show and definitely not at ICCA – loved the freestyle dance break at the end), and a couple of Billy Joel hits. Their set pretty much affirmed my a cappella love for Steve Anthony and my hatred of songs by The Fray. Anyway, 10 songs and a half a BOCA CD later, the results were in.
In my non-judge opinion, I would’ve gone with the following. The actual results are posted here.
Outstanding Solo: Buffalo Chips middle song
Outstanding Choreography: Villanova Spires for ‘Calculus’
Outstanding VP: Kaskeset for their first song
Outstanding Arrangement: Buffalo Chips for ‘What Goes Around…’
Placement:
1. Buffalo Chips
2. 36 Madison Avenue
3. Kaskeset