Note: This is the final regular post for our 2010 publication season. Thank you to all of this year’s contributors, and to all of our readers. Be sure to check back for news updates during the off-season. We will return to daily posting next season.

The Best I’ve Seen highlights the very best in collegiate a cappella, as seen in the admittedly biased and limited view of the author. In this special edition, ACB Content Manager Mike Chin and ACB Production Manager Mike Scalise team up and, on more than one occasion, butt heads about the best they’ve seen in the 2010 ICCA season.

Best Set
Mike Chin: The easy, objective pick here is The SoCal VoCals–after all, the group that wins the international championship should have put forth the best set of the year. I’m veering a little off course on this one, though, to instead offer up my pick for the set I enjoyed most this season, which would have to be the one put forth by The Washington University Stereotypes at the ICCA Midwest Semifinals. The guys started with a spot of high energy musical theatre with “Seize the Day” from Newsies, before taking on some old school Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “With Carry On.” It was a solid opening to the set, but the guys really were just getting started. In one of the top five solos I saw this year, the guys let loose “Your Song” in the style of Moulin Rouge, to be followed by an impossibly high octane version of “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. Sets just don’t get much more fun than that. Although the crew didn’t make it to the finals, it sure as heck wasn’t for lack of effort.

Mike Scalise: The best set that I’ve seen in the 2010 season comes from The SoCal VoCals at the finals in NYC. The group, which is tremendously talented, delivered three solid songs sung with near perfection. They began with “God Bless the Child” by Billie Holiday. The solo was clear and professional-sounding. Couple that with a strong visual performance by remaining group members and you have a hit. They continued with “Crazy Ever After” by The Rescues. I wasn’t very familiar with this song, but after hearing a number of soloists sing their hearts out, I was really moved. It was an amazing performance. The group completed their set with “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder. What stood out to me about this song was the group’s entertaining and energetic choreography which consisted of free-style dancing, hand gestures, and even a raising of the soloist (who, in case you were wondering, was exceptional). The overall set was hand over fist better than the rest of the competition, and rightfully earned this group the title and bragging rights for the ICCA 2010 season.

Best Song
Mike Chin: The SoCal VoCals put together a set like an a cappella highlight reel, but I think what I’ll remember most was their innovative imagining of The Rescues’ “Crazy Ever After”. With rotating soloists and rotating positions on stage, the group cleverly created a sense of group unity, while at the same time asserting the individual talents of the group members. Better yet, the constant shifting fit the “story” of the song well, illustrating the shift’s in the narrators’ minds, and the conflicted feelings at play. Emotionally heart-wrenching, musically sound, and altogether interesting to watch, this was the best song I saw in the 2010 season.

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The best I’ve seen highlights the very best in collegiate a cappella, as seen in the admittedly biased and limited view of the author.

This time, we share the best closing song to an ICCA set.

To those who have read Mickey Rapkin’s Pitch Perfect Brigham Young’s Noteworthy may come off as villains. At the least, they serve as dramatic foils for Divisi, one of the groups on which the book centers, and, as history would have it, one of the top groups for Noteworthy to overcome en route to the ICCA Finals.

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The best I’ve seen highlights the very best in collegiate a cappella, as seen in the admittedly biased and limited view of the author.

This time, we share the best opening song to an ICCA set.

Over the years, Ithacappella has developed into one of the east coast’s top a cappella acts, and a perennial threat in the ICCAs. They have had plenty of memorable performances in competition, but no better opening selection than their 2008 rendition of “Get Ready” by The Temptations.

“Get Ready” is just such a smart opener. It’s upbeat and fun. It’s lyrically applicable, warning the audience and competition that they should get ready, because the group is on its way and packing heat. Furthermore, it’s the kind of song that will appeal to a wide audience, and mostly likely leave the judges warm. It’s old enough to be familiar to the more aged onlookers, but fresh enough in folks’ memories from car commercials and whatnot that you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know it—though they might not have thought of the song in years (better yet!).

In addition to being a good song selection, the guys executed the heck out of it. There was plenty of movement, with choreography that may have grown repetitive, but was nonetheless fun and engaging. The soloist was dynamic. The group was on. This isn’t the sort of song that really wows you with dynamics, or knocks your socks off with the complex arrangement, but it doesn’t have to be, and it’s the groups way of acknowledging that it will be accessible and draw everyone in from the start before moving on to more holistically impressive things. Great opener.

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The best I’ve seen highlights the very best in collegiate a cappella, as seen in the admittedly biased and limited view of the author.

This time, we share the best use of a really ‘different’ song I’ve seen.

The scene is the 2009 ICCA Finals. We’re more than halfway through the evening’s competitors, and the men of Mt. San Antonio College Fermata Nowhere have already gone a long way toward stealing the show. Clad in their matching orange jumpsuits, the guys roused the crowd with Sergio Mendes’s “Magalenha,” then stole our hearts with Secondhand Serenade’s “Fall for You.” Those first two songs were enough to place them as favorites to take that year’s ICCA crown, but what was coming next simply out of this world.

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The Best I’ve Seen highlights the very best in collegiate a cappella, as seen in the admittedly biased and limited view of the author.

This time, we share the best incorporation of attire into performance.

There are many different ways in which to incorporate what you wear into a cappella performance. A group like Yale’s Dukes Men put on tuxedoes and put on a certain air of distinction. A group like Potsdam’s Pointercounts wear baseball jerseys, and exude an aura of fun and team spirit. Still yet, you have ensembles that put their threads to functional use, like Brigham Young Noteworthy in 2007, wearing black shirts, green ties and pink undershirts, and adjusting their configuration slightly between each song of their championship winning set. It’s entirely possible, though, that I have never seen a more fun, creative, and purposeful employment of attire in a set than what The Buffalo Chips pulled off in 2008.

On the surface, The Chips wore matching baseball tees—a simple enough uniform, demonstrating their unity and a casual tone. But where the real magic came in was the back of the shirts, each with a letter printed on it. Observant onlookers might notice that the letters, combined and de-scrambled, would spell out “BUFFALO CHIPS.” For those who were not so observant, the guys spelled it all out at the end of their ICCA set.

Indeed, in one fluid motion, the entire group spun its backs to the crowd after their last song, spelling out the group name for all to see. It was funny, it was different, and really, what better way to leaving a lasting visual impression on the audience and judges than by putting your name right out there? It was a very smart choice, and subtly indicative of the level of thought and preparation that went into the set. No onlooker could spot the guys carefully arranging themselves on stage for that moment, and there’s no doubt that, had they messed up their ordering, it would have been an unmitigated disaster. They pulled it off—still singing their hearts out, performing the heck out of their choreography up to the very end, before spinning around, making it look effortless, and leaving the crowd with that final image. It was best use of attire I have seen.

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