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.
