ICCA West Quarterfinal at UC Berkeley

Andrea Aquino is an alumna of UCSC's Acquire A Cappella. She directed the group during the 2009-2010 school year and led them to a fourth place finish at the ICCA West Quarterfinals last year. After her graduation this spring, she has continued to work closely with the group as their street team manager. She helped both Acquire and The Hightones prepare for this year's ICCA competition. This is her first review for The A Cappella Blog.

On Saturday, February 26, Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley hosted an ICCA West Quarterfinal. The event featured nine groups. Before we get to the review, a quick summary:

The Competitors:
Cal Poly SLO That's the Key
Pacific Lutheran University HERmonic
The UC Davis Spokes
The UC Santa Cruz Hightones
The UC Davis Liquid Hotplates
UC Santa Cruz Cloud Nine
UC Santa Cruz Acquire
University of Colorado, Denver UCD 6
Pacific Lutheran University PLUtonic

Host Groups:
UC Berkeley Noteworthy
UC Berkeley Men's Octet

I forgot what a nightmare it is to try and find parking in Berkeley, especially because Cal's a cappella concerts are always scheduled on the same night as some kind of sports event. (We never seemed to have that problem at Santa Cruz.) After passing three packed parking lots and accidentally parking in a lot reserved for Cal students, we finally found a spot and ran down Telegraph to Wheeler Hall.

I missed the first song, but I got to watch the rest of That's the Key's set. They're a new group, founded in 2009, and it showed. Their second song was a slow jam led by a talented but uninteresting to watch soloist. The song was well-performed, but the group was quiet, and apart from her voice, the soloist didn't contribute much to the song. It sounded good, but it wasn't very captivating.

They finished off their set with a mash up of Paramore's "That's What You Get" and Jimmy Eat World's "Sweetness." There were a lot of mash ups tonight, and this one was near the bottom of the list. The "Sweetness" male soloist held his own, but there are very few soloists who can do Paramore's Hayley Williams justice, and the girl playing her part didn't do so well. There wasn't any oomph in her belting, and she frequently fell sharp or flat. The arrangement was okay, but the songs didn't really have anything thematically in common, and the finale with the two sung together sounded mediocre at best. The boys' purple shirts and white bow ties didn't add to their nearly nonexistent maturity score.

I was surprised by the sound I heard from HERmonic. Several of the groups had issues making themselves heard, but these ladies didn't. They went from a choral-sounding song about true colors and whatnot into a faithful and fun rendition of Sara Bareilles's "King of Anything," led by a soloist with a smooth, jazzy voice. If I don't remember their second song, it was because I was so blown away by their third: Christina Aguilera's "Spotlight." I hadn't heard the song before, but I knew right away that it was a Christina Aguilera song, because the soloist was channeling her. She began with some incredible Christina-esque runs and leaps, and you could hear the "oooooooh"s run through the audience. It was utterly unexpected to hear that kind of vocal power coming out of a not-Christina-Aguilera mouth! The rest of the song was meh in comparison to the beginning. I wish they could have ended with some of that vocal honey, too.

Next were The Spokes, a group that I've seen perform several times over the past few years. They were clad in their trademark black and pink--simple black dresses with pink hairpieces. Their performance changes every time their roster does, and I have to admit I was a little bummed to see the two powerhouse soloists from last year's "Alone" graduate. However, they didn't let me down tonight. They started with "Breathless" by The Corrs, followed by two other songs I didn't recognize. Their choreography was simple, in unison, and fitting. What I like most about The Spokes is that they always seem so comfortable and easygoing onstage. They never seem like they're trying too hard, reaching past their boundaries, or doing anything that would make any of them uncomfortable. It's nice to watch, but I think that factor worked against them tonight. They had a solid performance that sounded and looked great, but they didn't do anything extraordinary.

I was proud and excited to see The Hightones take the stage. They're an all-girls group founded last year by Chris Crawford, who also founded Acquire (and was my director for three years) and A Cappella Records. I worked with them briefly a couple of weeks ago to prepare their set for the competition, and I was happy to see that they'd taken some of my notes to heart. They started with an upbeat arrangement of "Eleanor Rigby," which was performed perhaps a little too upbeat for my taste. The background vocals were well sung, and the soloist surprised everyone by doing a trust fall backwards into another girl's arms in the middle of the song. Next was "My Love" by The Bird and The Bee, a sweet love song accompanied by choreo where half of the girls became guys by putting on ties and having the other "girls" sit on their knees. Their last song was a mash up of The Ting Tings's "That's Not My Name" and Destiny's Child's "Say My Name," which work surprisingly well together. It's a crowd pleaser when performed on our turf at UCSC, but it didn't work so well here. It sounded muddled and messy despite everyone singing the arrangement well.

The Liquid Hotplates took the stage, looking sharp in black and royal blue. I was surprised to see Mercy, the beatboxer from The Spokes, among their lineup, but she blew the crowd away by showcasing her other talents with this other group from Davis. She not only beatboxed, but rapped and sounded damn good doing it, too. The other rappers (both male) sounded uncomfortable and awkward, but you could hear the audience whoop for Mercy when she came up. They sang a cute love ballad which was dull in comparison to their opener. What stood out for me was their volume—not a lot of groups managed to make themselves heard well tonight, but the Liquid Hotplates had a solid volume level throughout all their songs. I was only disappointed that their performance wasn't more memorable in other ways.

After the intermission, UCSC's Cloud Nine came onstage and kicked it off with a mash up of Hall & Oates's "You Make My Dreams Come True" and Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go." The songs went together well, both thematically and musically, and their supertenor was kick-ass. It formed an amazing contrast to their second song, a phenomenally arranged "Sound of Silence." The group began in their signature formation, with a row of taller singers at the back narrowing into a lone singer at the tip of the triangle. The words moved throughout the formation in an ingenious way, so that it went "Because" "a vis-" "-ion soft" "-ly-y" from the back to the front, then "creeping" in unison. The sheer complexity of the arrangement gave me chills, and the group performed it fantastically. (My boyfriend Dylan was so excited about it that he scribbled "Gregorian Garfunkel!" on the back of his hand.) Their last song was Beyonce's "Halo," which was done well but with an unnecessary and poorly carried out key change at the end.

I started biting my knuckles when Acquire walked on. I still think of them as my co-singers and my kids, and I frequently say "we" and "us" when I talk about the group. I performed "Fireflies" at last year's ICCAs, and I arranged one of the songs that they performed this year. Suffice to say that I have a huge investment and involvement in the group, and I was eager to see them do well. They (not "we") opened with Owl City's "Fireflies," a stellar arrangement and a solid song that the group has been working on for some time. Their soloist Caitlin has always been a crowd favorite, and she exceeded the crowd's expectations tonight. It's hard to believe that such a clear, glowing vibrato could come from a girl who's about 5'1” and 100 pounds, but she always comes through with a vocal kick in the face.

Their second song was a mash up of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" (moved down a few keys) and Nelly's "Just a Dream." I did a lot of the arranging for this one, and I was interested to see how the group interpreted my arrangement (because I wasn't present at the rehearsals when they learned the song). They performed it more whimsically and more lightheartedly than I would have liked; there was some pop choreography that I didn't feel fit the song, and I think they put more energy into the unnecessary choreography when they could have focused it on delivering a more emotional performance.

They finished up their set with "My Immortal Life," an Evanescence mash up that began with a few bars of "My Immortal" before transitioning into the majority of "Bring Me To Life." This was my favorite performance from Acquire's set because of the great energy that wasn't present for their first two songs. Kelsey sang solo before handing it off to Caitlin, who was undoubtedly the crowd's favorite soloist. The high, unwavering C that she held for I don't know how many bars sent the crowd into a frenzy of cheers, drowning out the background vocals.

The next performers were UCD 6, the night's smallest ensemble. The group is comprised of six extremely talented individuals who can each hold their own both as soloists and as background singers, and they played to their strengths by choosing minimalistic songs. "Parachute" (Sara Bareilles), "Grenade" (Bruno Mars), a spicy Spanish song, and several others were performed with seamless transitions, with the soloists passing a crisp white hat between them as the solo jumped from one singer to another. They had very few choreographed moves, but they made up for it with an air of professionalism and maturity that we didn't see from the other groups. They seemed very grown-up in comparison to everyone else; there was nothing cute, kitschy, or humorous about their set. They did their songs well and without much flare, but with a lot of talent.

Rounding out the night was PLUtonic, for whom I scribbled in my program: "15-person boy band! "Hallelujah, What a Savior," with touches of Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" thrown in for good measure. Their soloist, above all the others tonight, really looked like he was feeling what he was singing. Their last song was "In My Head" by Jason Derulo, complete with a "PluuuuUUuutonic" replacing JD's trademark "Jason DeruuUUUlo" that begins most of his hit songs.

The UC Men's Octet took the stage as the judges left to deliberate, performing several crowd favorites like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and their Bon Jovi medley, in addition to some older barbershop tunes that I hadn't heard before. As they sang, I arranged my choices in my head:

Best Arrangement: Cloud Nine - "Sound of Silence" ("Gregorian Garfunkel")
Best Soloist: HERmonic - "Spotlight" / Caitlin - Acquire - "My Immortal Life"
Best Choreography: Cloud Nine
Best Vocal Percussion: Danny (Acquire)

After what seemed like hours of anticipation, we heard the official ICCA results:

Outstanding Arrangement: Ian de Borja (Cloud Nine) for "Sounds of Silence"
Outstanding Soloist: Phil Serino (PLUtonic) for "Hallelujah, What a Savior"
Best Choreography: Kacie (The Spokes)
Outstanding Vocal Percussion: Danny (Acquire)

Overall Placement
1. PLUtonic
2. UCD6
3. Cloud Nine

Everyone, including the group themselves, seemed surprised that UCD6 had taken 2nd. I would have ranked Cloud Nine and Acquire higher than the 6, as far as entertainment and performance were concerned, but I understood that they won because of their technical perfection and the talent of each of their six individual members. PLUtonic jumped around excitedly when their victory was announced, hugging one another and their schoolmates from HERmonic before taking the stage one last time to sing their finale, a surprisingly emotional cover of Miley Cyrus's "The Climb." It's telling of the attitude of this group that they chose a Miley Cyrus song as their victory ballad, but also telling that they sang it so well and with so much feeling.