Friday the 13th wasn’t such a bad day overall, as it played host to the Rensselyrics and their show in the McNeil Room. The McNeil Room was decorated with black balloons and huge number 13’s were plastered onto the pillars to remind us of the importance of the day. The Rensselyrics comprise RPI’s oldest running a cappella group, and has been around since 1991. Presently, the group consists of four sopranos, two tenors, three altos, and five basses.

The Rensselyrics opened up with their rendition of “Trashin’ the Camp” by Phil Collins. Then they welcomed the first guest group onto the stage. The Dynamics—hailing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst—consists of 18 male and female members with an upbeat and contemporary repertoire. Beginning their performance, The Dynamics sang their rendition of The Fray’s “Over My Head,” followed by The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.” The Dynamics then finished up their act with “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” by S.T.A.R.S. The last song of the evening was the upbeat “I Want You Back” from The Jackson Five.

Afterwards, the stage was open for the Brandeis boys to take. VoiceMale is an all-male a cappella group from Brandeis University, with a repertoire that includes a mix of rock, pop, jazz, R&B, and other traditional songs. The group first started with an amusing rendition of Hanson’s “Where’s the Love” and “Mmm Bop.” Next on the group’s list was Phil Collins’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” followed by a rendition of the “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?” theme song. The audience was highly amused when VoiceMale began to sing and dance to its fourth song, “Here It Goes Again” by OK Go. The last song from the male group was “Falling Over You” by Sean Altman.

An additional a cappella group also came to visit during the Rensselyrics concert. Not So Sharp, from Hartwick College in Oneonta, is a beginning group—just one year old—with songs ranging from anthems to Christmas carols to contemporary music. The group began its first song by introducing it as a classic love story, where “boy meets girl, girl happens to be a fish who happens to have a speech impediment.” The song alluded to was “Kiss the Girls” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. It was then followed by a rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Under the Boardwalk.” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” followed afterwards, and Not So Sharp ended with Peggy Lee’s “Fever.”

To complement VoiceMale’s all-male a cappella group, the Rensselyrics also invited an all-female group from SUNY Fredonia. Some Like It Hot sings music from a wide variety of genres. SLIH started with a beginning medley—where the soloist flirted with some of the VoiceMale’s members—and then continued with a rendition of Blind Melon’s “No Rain.” The group’s version of “Swing, Swing” by the All-American Rejects was stylized to fit a girl’s version. This was followed by Weezer’s “Island in the Sun” and an addition of the Spice Girls’ “Spice Up Your Life” in the middle of the song. Some Like It Hot ended its show with girlish songs by Donna Summer, “She Works Hard for the Money” and Aretha Franklin, “It’s In His Kiss.”

It was finally time for the Rensselyrics to continue with its performance. The next song to be performed from the group’s repertoire was “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” by Frankie Valli, soloed by Brooke O’Donnell ’09. The ’Lyrics also performed the Spiderman theme song with Rebecca Thakar ’10 as the lead vocalist. Chris Kim ’10 then asked for a volunteer to step onto the stage for him to sing “In the Still of the Night” by Fred Parris. Maggie Converse ’08 soloed after Kim with Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

Chris Mui ’08 sang a solo of the rendition of Vertical Horizon’s “You’re a God,” followed by “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield (with Kerry Reilly ’09 as soloist). To end the Rensselyrics’ Friday the 13th concert, Laura Cuttica ’09 soloed in “Turn the Beat Around,” one of the group’s more popular songs.

That wasn’t the end to the a cappella. On Saturday night, Mother’s Wine Emporium played host to Partial Credit and its “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?” themed show. Partial Credit is the youngest of RPI’s three a cappella groups, but it certainly does not pale in comparison. Before any songs were performed, the group played a small video of a Carmen San Diego-type game show—which became “Shirley J Is MIA.” The sole purpose of the game show was for the three freshman “gumshoes” (Christopher Coates, John Maderazo, and Hannah DeLisie) to find out where President Shirley Ann Jackson could be found. There were three video clips in all—shown in between performances.

Partial Credit began with “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas (with a solo by Elise Shapiro ’07). DeLisie, Maderazo, and Matthew Lapierre ’07 then continued with their humorous rendition of “I Wish I Could Go Back To College” from Avenue Q. Coates then soloed to the upbeat song “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham. After the first three songs, the group opened the stage for RIT’s all-male a cappella group, 8 Beat Measure.

As Rochester Institute of Technology’s first a cappella group, 8 Beat Measure has a repertoire of funky styles and smooth harmonies. The group started its performance with Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling.” The next song was “If I Ever Fall In Love Again” by Boyz II Men. RIT’s a cappella group then broke into a more traditional song by performing John McDermott’s “By Yon Bonnie Banks.” This was followed by the group’s rendition of “Roll To Me” by Del Amitri. 8 Beat Measure also sang songs by Eric Clapton (“Wonderful Tonight”) and Billy Pilgrim (“Insomniac.”) The group’s farewell song was “Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby” by Les Applegate.

Partial Credit continued with the rest of its repertoire, which included “Call Me Al” by Paul Simon (solo by Jim Scott ’07) and “Make You Happy Tonight” by Tripod (solo by Allan Pendergrast ’08). The group broke the performance for an intermission and the conclusion of the Carmen San Diego themed film—Jackson’s location was finally disclosed, and she was found at a frat party with a sombrero on her head. Partial Credit then continued with “500 Miles” by the Proclaimers. Pendergrast then followed with a solo of “And So It Goes” by Billy Joel.