On Saturday, April 13, Wooster Jam at the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Wooster, OH, played host to VoiceFest. The event featured eight competing groups. Before we get to the review, a quick summary:

The Competitors:
Ohio State University Buck That!
University of Akron Rhythm & ‘Roos
Ohio Wesleyan University Pitch Black
Baldwin-Wallace University Mr. Sun’s Echo
College of Wooster Round of Monkeys
The Kent State University Kent Clarks
The Oberlin College Obertones
Case Western Reserve University Dhamakapella

Note: I served as one of the judges for this event, and so did not take nearly as comprehensive review-oriented notes as I ordinarily would, so this write-up is a bit abbreviated.

On Friday, March 1, South Lakes High School in Reston, VA, played host to the SingStrong DC Aca-Idol competition. The event featured nine competing groups. Before we get to the review, a quick summary:

The Competitors:
Baltimore Vocal Jazz Ensemble
UltraViolet
George Mason University Tomorrow’s Harmony
The Gettysburg College Four Scores
The Virginia Commonwealth University RAMifications
Keyvibe
The Virginia Commonweath University Notochords
The Metropolitones
James Madison University Note-oriety

The Judges:
Rob Dietz (from The Funx)
Amy Engelhardt (formerly from The Bobs)
Ali Hauger (from GQ)

This past weekend’s SoJam Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, kicked off with a collegiate competition.

Venue: Memorial Auditorium, Progress Energy Center

Sound: Sled Dog Studios

Emcees and Guest Group: Members of The Edge Effect

The Competitors:
North Carolina State University Acappology
The Vanderbilt University Melodores
The University of South Carolina Cocktails
Georgia Tech Nothin’ but Treble
University of Colorado Denver Mix
The Northeastern University Nor’easters

The annual SoJam Collegiate Competition got a new look this year with an elimination-style, progressive competition featuring different categories for each round.

Round one centered on the theme, “Come as You Are.”

Acappology opened the competition with Carrie Underwood’s “Good Girl.” Lots of well-planned movement on this song; with the group clustering and segmenting in male groups and female groups, the women often at the fore. The group employed plenty of seductive bends and twists to add a distinctive, sultry flavor to the song. Nice solo. Solid perc. Fun soft clap body percussion breakdown, leading into a clap along segment while background sound fell out and the soloist got her power moment. The seams started to show on the choreography late in the song as the group looked a little sloppy trying backing itself up in unison.. Good sound, and I appreciated the general connectedness of the sound and visual performance. Unfortunately, the group never quite arrived at a show-stopping moment. With just one song to make its case to move on to round two, Acappology’s performance didn’t quite resonate the way it needed to.

The Melodores showed off a new look for the crowd in Raleigh, clad in white tops rather than their traditional black. They tackled Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole,” featuring a positively sick falsetto solo. Nice full, complex sound from the group. Excellent percussion. The guys stood in a simple arc, performing very little choreography per se, but each group member moved with the music. Very cool electric guitar effect. Top to bottom, this was an excellent song choice to establish The Melodores’ edgy, aggressive identity.

This past weekend, I had the honor of serving as a judge at Voice Fest—a uniquely structured elimination-style competition that was part of the Wooster Jam music festival in Wooster, OH. I was focused on completing my scoring sheets, was listening for some different qualities than I ordinarily do, and didn’t take as copious notes as I ordinarily would when covering an event for The A Cappella Blog, and so I don’t have a full write up to share. Furthermore, I don’t want to undermine my fellow judges by necessarily making public the few points on which we disagreed. Therefore, what follows are a handful of thoughts from the show, rather than a comprehensive summary and review.

The Kent Clarks are one of those groups that’s absurdly good for how short a time it has been together (under a year). I didn’t envy them for having to open this show, but they did themselves proud with a set that featured a very good solo on Sara Bareilles’s “King of Anything” and excellent dynamics on “Pumped Up Kicks.” The truest surprise of the set was “Somebody I Used to Know,” covered in the style of Pentatonix, which saw the group strip down to just five vocalists. Really strong rotating lead on this one and some keen harmonies. I really enjoyed the borderline dubstep bass effect as the rhythm guy worked double time to electrify this song. I would have liked to have seen a little more stage presence from the group, and, while they actually did surprisingly well with it, I seriously don’t think any collegiate group in 2012 should be covering a song from The Little Mermaid (“Kiss the Girl”)—it has been done and while it can work in the context of a family weekend-type show, it’s a little too silly for competition.

By virtue of the competition structure, all seven groups performed, three were eliminated, then the remaining four groups sang again, then two more were out, leaving the final two. As a result, Ohio State Buck That! graced the stage three times. One of the things that was immediately evident about this group was their degree of polish. Remarkably, like the Kent Clarks, they haven’t been around very long, but they have already tested the waters of ICCAs, and that experience shone through in their stage presence, showmanship, and, most definitely in their choreography. Their seven songs included their three-song ICCA set—one piece of it in each of their outings. Understandably, these pieces were by far their most polished. “Poison” had incredibly slick vocals and a very cool stomp percussion effect that was used just long enough to make sure the audience took notice (too often, groups will do something cool and experimental like this, but drop it after a measure or two—too quickly for most of the audience to really appreciate what they’re doing) but also sparingly enough not to go overboard. I worry the choreography did go a little too far on “It’s Gonna Be Me.” While I credit them for moving with a purpose and synching things up really well, there’s a critical point where too much movement can distract from the music and that piece teetered on the verge of that. While “Kryptonite” was no less movement intensive, I positively loved the way in which the guys’ movement and vocals culminated, including samples from earlier songs to give it a “grand finale” feel. Sublime closer. My only knock on Buck That! Has to do with song selection. “Stand By Me”/”Beautiful Girls” medleys were hot on the collegiate scene with all-male groups five years ago. “Fix You,” the other relatively contemporary song selection, has been covered by a plethora of collegiate groups over the last few years. The rest of the set was all songs groups could have (and many cases have) been covered for the last decade. I don’t mean to diminish Buck That!’s accomplishment—they’re a great group. But to take the act to the next level, I’d love to hear them take on more contemporary and/or offbeat selections. Nonetheless, they very much deserved the first place honors they took home from this competition.