Anticipation and excitement swirled through the air at Mother’s as the density of human bodies approached something the fire marshal would have had serious problems with. At 8 pm Saturday night, there was a tremendous sense of impending a cappella, and that premonition could not have been more correct. The Rensselyrics quickly filed on stage to set the tone for this female-themed a cappella invitational, featuring The Noteables of Smith College, Serendipity from SUNY Albany, and Some Like it Hot from SUNY Fredonia, all of which are all-female groups.
The ’Lyrics began by having one of their own, David Roberts ’06, make an apparently serious appeal to the ladies in the audience. Then they launched into “Bellybutton,” in which Roberts revealed that apparently he has no bellybutton, and was promptly chased off the stage at the end of the song by a planted groupie.
After that bit of silliness, The Smith College Noteables took the stage. The 11 girls in the group all stood together and bopped to the music, creating a bouncing nucleus of estrogen in the middle of the stage, and all of them were barely controlling ear-to-ear grins. The Noteables very much enjoyed themselves, and it showed in their performance. From Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” to the classics “Son of a Preacher Man” and “So Happy Together,” the Noteables were outstanding. In their final song, Susan Tedeschi’s “It Hurt So Bad,” the soloist gave an impressive performance, floating between vocal chord-shredding yells and sweet-as-sugar crescendos with a smile on her face.
The Rensselyrics returned to show the audience what happened when the girls in the group, hurt by the rejection of the guys, went to a counselor—’Lyric John Pettengill ’06—to remedy the problem. The dialogue here was absolutely hilarious, with Pettengill’s dry deadpan sealing the deal on the scatterbrained and sometimes overtly fictional accounts by the ‘Lyric girls.
Next up was Serendipity from the University at Albany. They were somewhat disorganized in their overall presentation, but they mostly made up for that with their fluidity and power. Their performance of “What I Got” by Sublime, with the theme from “The Fresh-Prince of Bel-Air” inserted into the middle, received uproarious and sustained applause as the show intermissed. Refreshments were provided on the house.
The Rensselyrics brought the funny once more, this time with a joint counseling session, during which the girls accused the guys of being oblivious to them, and the guys denied that, while simultaneously becoming very focused on the fire-themed females from Fredonia, Some Like it Hot, who took the stage next.
They began with Ben Folds’ “Annie Waits,” sneaking a “We love RPI!” as an homage to what the ’Lyrics did when they performed at Fredonia. Unlike the Noteables, the girls of Some Like it Hot stood in a massive semicircle, creating a lens of a cappella, focusing all its energy through the soloist at the focal point.
The effect was nothing short of astounding as the girls also added their own dances and shenanigans, toying with each other as much as the audience. In particular, the seriousness of Jet’s “Look What You’ve Done” was very much belied by their creative use of a facebook photo of ’Lyric Tony Olivo ’08. Their final performance, the classic “Respect,” could have been lifted right from the scene in Blues Brothers 2000, and the crowd went nuts.
Finally, the Rensselyrics came back to strut their stuff, after several soon-to-graduate members received bouquets of flowers. They began with “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence and then brought up the sister of ’Lyric Laura Cuttico ’09 and serenaded her with “Sugar, Sugar,” using an interlude of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” The Rensselyrics closed the show with another mix of the same type, vaulting into Gloria Estefan’s “Turn the Beat Around” and sliding through the vocal percussion of Pettengill and Gary Yund ’06 into the Beach Boys’ “Wipeout” and back again for a stunning finish to a stunning show.
