Johns Hopkins Campus Show

I caught my first a cappella show in the great state of Maryland tonight. It wasn’t a competition, but did feature four groups, representing three schools, so it seemed worth a quick review.

This evening’s event occurred at Johns Hopkins University’s Arellano Theater in Levering Hall. It was a small venue, that was absolutely packed, leaving plenty of audience members—myself included—standing toward the back of the space. Unfortunately, this meant I really didn’t have the opportunity to take notes, so this review won’t be as thorough as it might ordinarily be.

One of the two Hopkins groups, the mixed Octopedes, opened the evening’s festivities. Good outing for the group, highlighted by their soulful rendition of Marc Broussard’s “Home,” which featured some superb body perc at the end.

Brandeis’s VoiceMale took the stage second. There are just a few, select groups in collegiate a cappella who can take the stage with a level of energy and sound that electrifies the audience on impact. I’ve seen Rochester’s Midnight Ramblers and the Binghamton Crosbys have this “it” factor. VoiceMale is another one of these groups. The guys were riding high, starting the set with “Falling Over You.” The group announced that this show was the last stop of their east coast tour. The low point of the set came in a cover of Daughtry’s “I’m Coming Home.” Don’t get me wrong, because the sound was rather good. I was disappointed with the soloist’s performance choices, though, hamming up what should have been one of the set’s few sobering moment. Otherwise, the group turned out good renditions of “Freedom” and “Stand By Me” before wrapping up with an absolutely sensational performance of OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again.” Fantastic high octane choreography here, good sound, and fun inclusion of syllables related to the group’s name.

Johns Hopkins’s all-female Sirens took the stage next. The women put on a good showing. I was particularly fond of their rendering of Oasis’s “Wonderwall,” with a really neat arrangement at the end, having different women sing different key lines from the song, rather than settling for a more mundane outro. The set was a little heavily oriented toward music originally performed by men—a minor pet peeve of mine.

The University of Michigan’s Dicks and Janes closed the show. Half the group had to sidle and manuever their way past me, through the cramped standing room of the theater on their way to the stage. To their credit, they didn’t complain, and several group members actually apologized to me and the other folks who found themselves in the way. Contrary to VoiceMale, this was one of the first stops on the Dicks and Janes’ spring break tour. I liked the outfit choices here—blue t-shirts for the guys, pink for the women, for a fun look. Well-choreographed set, which started off strong, and included an impressive rendering of “Chicago.”

All in all, it was a pretty brief show given the number of groups, clocking in at just over an hour. I was sort of expecting one of the home groups to come back to close it out, but that was not to be.
We’ll have photos from this show posted in our gallery soon.

Be sure to check back at the blog throughout the week for a new Tuesday Tubin’, an exclusive interview with Acasola, and a new Measure for Measure. In addition, I’m planning to travel to Drexel next weekend to cover the ICCA Mid-Atlantic quarterfinal, so expect for a review of that show to be coming up around the bend.