Event: International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal
Date: March 1, 2008
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Drexel University
The Main Building
Official Results: See end of article
Mike C checking in here after one heck of a quarterfinal in Philadelphia last night. A quick note before the review—photos from the event are available now on our Photos page.
There were some odd circumstances leading up to the event. As is my wont, I pre-ordered tickets for the show. During the week, I received a phone call from someone at Ticket Alternative, the folks who were handling pre-sales, telling me about a change in venue for the event, and giving me a new location. Then the night before the show I received an e-mail from none other than ICCA Executive Director Amanda Grish, saying that there had been some confusion, but the show would be in the original location. From there, the actual show got off to a late start. Despite an advertised start time of 7:30 p.m., the doors the auditorium didn’t even open until well after 8:00.
The venue was pretty decent—just a basic mid-sized auditorium, with a nice big stage up front. Pretty good sound. An old-style, all wood stage. It was a good place for this kind of event because it didn’t seem like a formal concert hall, but at the same time, had the seating, and a formal enough stage to fit a meaningful competition.
Fortunately, the show itself redeemed the event quite nicely. Dave, from Drexel’s all-male 8 to the Bar had emcee duties for the night, and his group opened the night with “Good Old A Cappella.” Good, harmless tune. Nothing special, nothing bad. I kind of like the choice of attire, everyone in a different polo and jeans. Just enough to be uniform, collars so they don’t look like slobs, but casual enough so it doesn’t look like a costume. I wouldn’t have liked if they were competing, but as a host group, it worked.
The Melismatics, a mixed group out of Lehigh University were the first group competing. Sizeable group, and they were looking sharp in black bottoms, red and white dressy attire on top. I liked the look.
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