I caught my first a cappella show in the great state of Maryland tonight. It wasn’t a competition, but did feature four groups, representing three schools, so it seemed worth a quick review.

This evening’s event occurred at Johns Hopkins University’s Arellano Theater in Levering Hall. It was a small venue, that was absolutely packed, leaving plenty of audience members—myself included—standing toward the back of the space. Unfortunately, this meant I really didn’t have the opportunity to take notes, so this review won’t be as thorough as it might ordinarily be.

One of the two Hopkins groups, the mixed Octopedes, opened the evening’s festivities. Good outing for the group, highlighted by their soulful rendition of Marc Broussard’s “Home,” which featured some superb body perc at the end.

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The A Cappella Blog welcomes Melissa Rashford, a five-time ICCA competitor and former director of the Syracuse University Mandarins, for a guest review of this past Saturday’s competition

Someday, I hope to get my act together and apply to be an ICCA judge.  For now, I will have to settle for going to shows and pretending that I’m a judge, and hoping that someone is nice enough to post my opinions for all the world to disagree with.

My night started in the lobby of Setnor Auditorium, where members of Orange Appeal asked me if I was reviewing the show for the ACB (yes I am, so you should probably sing in tune, thanks!) and a couple of out-of-towners complained loudly about how hard the building was to find (okay, I know I went to school here, but plan ahead and print a campus map next time).  Upon entering the Aud, I was oh-so-thrilled to discover that the heat hadn’t made its way to the balconies, nor were the lights turned on.  You can also imagine how happy I was when the show started at approximately 8:12…does nothing start on time anymore?  The only thing this wait did was cement my hatred for ‘Other Side of the World’ by KT Tunstall.  (Thanks, BOCA 2008!)

This show looked good on paper.  Six groups (the way it should be, makes for a nice even show), three all-male, two mixed, and one female group.  Add in Orange Appeal – in my opinion, the perfect group to host one of these things.  They’re entertaining, the set is catchy, and they’re usually better than the groups performing.  They opened the show with ‘Come Sail Away’, complete with crazy ballet intro and ridiculous choreography.  (I love the ending spirit fingers.)  Two of the senior OA guys took on emcee duties for the night and away we went.

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Event: International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal
Date: February 9, 2007
Location: Syracuse, NY / Syracuse University / Setnor Auditorium
Official Results: See end of article

Mike C here with some relatively abbreviated  thoughts on the show. My viewing conditions were a far cry from ideal for this competition, and I anticipate having a guest contributor give a report from the show as well in the days ahead.

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With the ICCAs over for the year, here is a look back at my favorite performances from the competition.

Of course, before we get under way, I do have to stress that I only attended five out of the thirty-one shows that occurred throughout the US, Canada and England, so by no means would I claim that this is a comprehensive of list of which performances were actually the year’s best. The shows I caught were:

Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinals at Syracuse University
Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinals at Lafayette College
Northeast Quarterfinals at SUNY Potsdam
Mid-Atlantic Semifinals at Rutgers University
Finals at the Lincoln Center

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Event: International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella and International Championship of High School A Cappella Finals
Date: April 21, 2007
Location: New York, NY
The Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall
Official Results: See end of article

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