“Sunday morning rain is falling…” “Cause every time we touch…I get this feeling.” “The only living boy in New York…” “Don’t tell mama…” Sound familiar? These are just a few of the many lines from the A Cappella Fest that took place in Tang Theater last Friday night. Students, faculty, and parents pushed, squeezed and fought to get seats with only one thing on their mind — a cappella! A cappella singing is without instruments and is not an endeavor for the weak hearted. However, the talented singers of the four groups which performed pulled it off perfectly. Andover’s own Azure and Yorkies, and guest stars the Harvard-Radcliff Pitches and the MIT Logarhythms sang their hearts out, danced till their feet were tired, and put on an unforgettable show. The night began with twelve girls clad in black t-shirts and jeans. It was Azure, PA’s all-girl A cappella group. They belted out three numbers and they certainly gave it their all. Susannah Poland ’07 sang a shy, operatic version of “Don’t Want to Wait.” Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as expected, as Sarah Beattie ’07 and Alison Occhiuti ’06 failed to stay together during their duet in “Everytime We Touch.” However, their mistakes were compensated for by the other Azure members’ enthusiastic dancing and spunk. Next up was Andover’s pride and joy, The Yorkies. As always, they treated our ears and eyes with five delightfully rowdy songs full of stomps and cheers. Not only were they downright hilarious, they also hit a more serious note. Especially memorable was the Scottish song, “Loch Lomond,” in which Dan Silva ’08 captivated the entire audience with his deep and passionate voice. He said that, “Loch Lomond makes all of us feel more man-licious, or even more man-tantasic”. The Yorkies ended with “Freedom ’90”, belted out by Chris Li ’07 and Jeff Cutts ’06. Suddenly, the evening was transformed from rowdy to classy. The Radcliffe Pitches, Harvard’s premiere female a cappella group, paraded onto the stage in black cocktail dresses. Established in 1975, the Pitches specialize in jazz standards, many of which they performed for the PA audience. Two especially talented performers were the blonde soloist, JC Cassis, who had a sensationally powerful voice, and the petite Miriam Golding, whose spicy voice exuded sex appeal. By unanimous audience demand, Dan Bacon ’06 was selected to be serenaded by red head Caitlin, creating quite a ruckus among the crowd. Another jazzy number was “Don’t Tell Mama”, which included witty lines such as, “You can tell my Papa, because he comes here every night”. The Harvard Radcliffe Pitches were polished, professional, and added that little extra bit of jazz to the show. Hands down, the stars of the night were the MIT Logarhythms. Exuberantly racing in from both sides of the theater, all sixteen MIT boys leapt onto stage, screaming, dancing, and creating a riot. Immediately, they burst into song and dance. Their dance moves will go down in history. Call them overly hyper rabbits, or Michael Jackson wannabes, but the audience loved it. Perhaps their best move was when they lined up and flapped their arms up and down like confused penguins. Their irresistible dance moves aside, the Logarhythms could really sing. They made Jen Downing ’08 blush as they surrounded and serenaded her with “Pretty Baby Face”. They even performed a quirky little skit about neurons, MIT style. According to general consensus, the favorite of the night was “Sunday Morning”. The adorable Jason Ku passionately sang it with a young, innocently sincere voice as the rest of the crew beat boxed and head bobbed behind him. It was a winner. In the priceless words of Ellie and Nayab from the guestbook on www.mitlogs.com, “YOU GUYS ARE SO HOT. (we are now going to go study our math and science to get to MIT).” Ending the night with a random crazy dance and song number, the MIT Logs showed PA how much fun a cappella really is. The human voice is a mystery that is hard to control, hard to understand, but when one succeeds, it’s beautiful, it’s inspirational, and it’s magical. And at A Cappella Fest, the singers managed to make magic happen.
