Straight No Chaser (Summer 90s Concert)
Jul. 9th, 2025 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroOriginally formed as an undergrad acappella group at Indiana University in the 90s, the founding members re-formed their group in 2007 as professional performers after a video they made in 1998 went viral. Since then, they continued to rotate in new members (apparently all of whom were once in the still-extant undergrad group), and currently touring with a nine-man lineup.
They’re still very much a 90s (“pre-Glee”) acappella group; they’re all in their 40s but they still perform like 20-something dudes. Their arrangements aren’t actually that complex and they seem to double most of the background parts. It’s clear that no professional choreographer has ever been in the same room with them; though I’ll give credit to the guys who are my age but still spry enough to dance like overconfident, untrained teenagers. They absolutely are talented singers; and they’re good-looking guys, but they learned their schtick in college and never updated it. (Well, except maybe for the guy whose entire intro was dad jokes.) Jethrien’s comment was that their concert felt like an undergrad acappella jam, just with a bigger budget for funny intro videos and background images.
They get credit for looking to the entire 90s for their concert selection, rather than just a three-year span. They also did several medleys which jumped between early-90s to late-90s material in amusing ways. (Jumping from Eminem to Vanilla Ice was clever.) I think there were only two songs in the entire concert that I didn’t recognize.
This was the very first night of their summer tour, so I shouldn’t be too picky, but there were definitely a few spots where they were pitchy on high notes or not quite confident on transitions. They also did a TV tunes medley which had one song in a noticeably different key from the original (noticeable to me, and my sense of absolute pitch isn’t actually that great), which was weird. They also flubbed or changed some lyrics, including “And I cry / Oh my God do I cry” in their cover of 4 Non Blonds’ “What’s Up?” Jethrien’s theory is that the guy has just given up and he’s not bothering to try (in this institution) any more.
During their final song (“Closing Time”), they put down their mics and sang “like you would have originally heard us on campus.” And then the soloist proceeded to screw up a line, which felt incredibly apropos.
Oh, and also because it was their first stop, they hadn’t finished getting the CDs pressed and didn’t have any to sell. D’oh!
Overall: This was a fun concert, and nostalgic in more ways than one, as it was an extremely 90s acappella group doing 90s songs. College acappella has evolved (often for the better, but not always), and this felt like a time capsule in a bunch of ways.
They’re still very much a 90s (“pre-Glee”) acappella group; they’re all in their 40s but they still perform like 20-something dudes. Their arrangements aren’t actually that complex and they seem to double most of the background parts. It’s clear that no professional choreographer has ever been in the same room with them; though I’ll give credit to the guys who are my age but still spry enough to dance like overconfident, untrained teenagers. They absolutely are talented singers; and they’re good-looking guys, but they learned their schtick in college and never updated it. (Well, except maybe for the guy whose entire intro was dad jokes.) Jethrien’s comment was that their concert felt like an undergrad acappella jam, just with a bigger budget for funny intro videos and background images.
They get credit for looking to the entire 90s for their concert selection, rather than just a three-year span. They also did several medleys which jumped between early-90s to late-90s material in amusing ways. (Jumping from Eminem to Vanilla Ice was clever.) I think there were only two songs in the entire concert that I didn’t recognize.
This was the very first night of their summer tour, so I shouldn’t be too picky, but there were definitely a few spots where they were pitchy on high notes or not quite confident on transitions. They also did a TV tunes medley which had one song in a noticeably different key from the original (noticeable to me, and my sense of absolute pitch isn’t actually that great), which was weird. They also flubbed or changed some lyrics, including “And I cry / Oh my God do I cry” in their cover of 4 Non Blonds’ “What’s Up?” Jethrien’s theory is that the guy has just given up and he’s not bothering to try (in this institution) any more.
During their final song (“Closing Time”), they put down their mics and sang “like you would have originally heard us on campus.” And then the soloist proceeded to screw up a line, which felt incredibly apropos.
Oh, and also because it was their first stop, they hadn’t finished getting the CDs pressed and didn’t have any to sell. D’oh!
Overall: This was a fun concert, and nostalgic in more ways than one, as it was an extremely 90s acappella group doing 90s songs. College acappella has evolved (often for the better, but not always), and this felt like a time capsule in a bunch of ways.
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Date: 2025-07-09 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-09 09:06 pm (UTC)