Mother’s Wine Emporium overflowed with people Saturday evening for a night of talent and laughs. RPI’s a cappella group Partial Credit gave its fall performance—titled “Partial Credit and the Holy Grail.” The school’s newest a cappella group celebrated their fourth anniversary this year with a packed room and three guest a cappella groups.
Partial Credit opened the show with a small set of three songs and a skit. It started with a “Muppet Medley,” which always gets the crowd laughing. Then it slowed things down with the Peter Gabriel song, “In Your Eyes.” Finally, they performed the popular Journey song, “Don’t Stop Believing,” which always gets listeners of all ages singing.
Before each guest group came on stage to perform, Partial Credit acted out some hilarious scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail such as the Bridge of Death and the killer rabbit, in which case Partial Credit used a killer squirrel in honor of Alby, who was killed with a holy hockey puck replacing the holy hand grenade. Needless to say, these skits resulted in laughter and applause from the crowd.
The three guest groups were, in order of appearance, Amherst’s DQ, Clark University’s Clark Bars, and lastly the RIT Brick City Singers. DQ performed songs such as “Come and Get Your Love,” and “You Give Me Fever,” while the Clark Bars showed off its talents with a selection from Ben Folds called “Annie Waits” and Guster’s “Either Way.” The Brick City Singers finished off the guest groups with “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid and ended their set with “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard. “The guest groups were very talented and we were impressed by their performances,” said Matthew Lapierre, a senior member of Partial Credit.
Finally, it was time for Partial Credit to showcase its repertoire. It began with Queen’s classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” and continued with selections from the Broadway musicals Avenue Q and Wicked. Partial Credit really got the crowd’s attention by taking the energy up a notch with “Love Shack” by the B-52’s as well as “Wishing I was There” by Natalie Imbruglia and “Cigarettes Will Kill You” by Ben Lee, which is a new addition to the group’s collection. For the final song that Partial Credit performed, alumni were invited on stage to sing “Tribute” by Tenacious D. It is a “Tribute” to the alumni and always ends their shows.
One audience member commented, “Partial Credit has really developed into a strong group of talented kids. Tonight was an excellent performance and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for us next!”
