By Elizabeth Miller ’15, Co-Editor-in-Chief
On April 27th, Bogart’s was full of a different kind of crowd. Rather than the usual mob of mosh-pitting hipsters, the club was filled to the brim with people of all ages and music tastes. Everyone there shared one thing: a love for a new kind of acapella, brought to Cincinnati by Pentatonix.
Pentatonix is made up of five insanely talented musicians. The three singers: Kirstie Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, and Scott Hoying, have been singing together for years, as they went to school together in Arlington, Texas. As the trio prepared for their audition for the Sing-Off (NBC’s a capella competition show, which will return late this year) , they decided to add a rhythm section, so they were joined by Avi Kaplan, a bass, and Kevin Osolula, a beat-boxer. The five strolled straight through the competition, easily taking home the crown in November 2011. Since they won the Sing-Off, Pentatonix has been busy. The fivesome has released two EPs, has recorded a third, released over twenty YouTube covers, and has been on tour constantly. The unrelenting workload has only made them stronger, so the group is even more seamless and perfect than they were on the Sing-Off. Listening to them, making fantastic music with just one’s mouth sounds like the easiest thing in the world, until you realize that you are nowhere near as talented as these masters of the music world.
Pentatonix began their show with one of their YouTube hit mashups: “Save the World/Don’t You Worry Child” by Swedish House Mafia on a pitch black stage with the occasional flash of light. This was followed later on by another one of their mashups– they’re really good at mashups–, a mix of Justin Bieber’s “As Long As You Love Me” and Katy Perry’s “Wide Awake”.
Making sure to not disappoint the Sing-Off fans in the crowd, Pentatonix performed four of their biggest hits on the show: “Video Killed the Radiostar” by the Buggles, “OMG” by Usher, “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West, and “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye, as well as “Telephone” by Lady Gage, the song they auditioned for the show with. This tribute to the show most likely pleased the VIP in the house whom Mark Femia reports to have seen in the back of the room: Nick Lachey, the host of the Sing-Off.
The entire group, Avi in particular, were delighted by the fact that the crowd was full of “choir nerds”, and decided to reward us with a few treats. The first was a little sing-along, most likely put in the set to give the singers’ voices a rest. Avi and Kevin divided the crowd into three groups: Teams Scott, Mitch, and Kirstie, each of which was assigned a different part to sing.
This was followed by Kevin demonstrating his original claim to fame, cello-boxing, in which he plays cello while beat-boxing. They performed the song “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, which appears in one of their most popular YouTube music videos. They sang without the other string instrument which appears in the video, a violin played by Lindsey Stirling, beginning the song with Kevin on stage, and slowly adding voices into the mix.
Later, we got two gifts in one, both from Avi. First, he demonstrated a unique talent, singing an overtone, in which he sang two notes at once, a talent that most certainly helps the group, adding an extra “voice” to the tiny group. He then did a special song for the abundant nerd population in the crowd, singing the theme song for The Hobbit, “Over the Misty Mountains”, in his dwarf-like deep voice. He then invited the rest of the group back on stage and introduced my personal favorite song of theirs, a favoritism that Avi shares, because he loves the lead vocals. Their arrangement of the song, “Aha!” by Imogen Heap, entails a high lead from Mitch, in which, in the words of Avi, he sounds like “[a sweet little baby angel]”. “Aha!” is the perfect song for Pentatonix, as it combines their skill in creating electronic noises with their flawless singing voices.
One of the most exciting moments
of the show was a new original song, their third (as far as we know). “The Peaceful War”, which has not yet been officially released, was written for all of Pentatonix’s fans by Avi, who also takes the lead for some of the song. He demonstrates his non-bass voice, a very rare occurrence, which proved to be just as stunning as his inhumanly low voice. Although the arrangement is very simple, it highlights all of their talents.
The shocker of the night came at the encore, when we were informed that Mitch was sick. Apparently these singers are just so good that even being sick doesn’t make them sound bad… Their encore, last year’s hit song “We Are Young” by Fun., would usually be led by Mitch, however, as it is simply the melody, the audience joined in, taking his place.
Seeing Pentatonix was unreal. It is impossible to understand the full power that these five young people give off unless you are in the same room as them. Their talent is so much more obvious in person. You can tell that it’s really them; there is no other way for these five people to be making such incredible sounds except for with their mouths. You can feel the vibrations of sound waves going through your body as they sing. It’s cliché, but you really can feel the music.
No copyright infringement intended. Video is property of Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling.