Going to see Amazin’ Blue and State of Fifths rock the (very orange!) Rackham Auditorium was the perfect way to spend a Saturday Night.
If you don’t believe me about the orange part, just take a look:
It’s gorgeous. I wish the world had more monochromatic auditoriums.
ANYWAY, Amazin’ Blue is an award-winning a capella group at UM founded in ’87, and it is the only university-sponsored a capella group on campus. They try to create innovative music!
State of Fifths is an award-winning a capella group at MSU founded in ’08. They arrange all of their own pieces and perform a wide variety of music!
All of the singers and soloists from both groups were phenomenal and had me wishing I could sing because they made it look so easy! And best of all, every single one of them looked like they were having the time of their lives up there. They were grooving and bopping on stage the whole time looking like there was nowhere else they’d rather be. It made it impossible to not have fun down in the audience too.
Every so often in between songs someone from Amazin’ Blue would take the mic to introduce one of the “newbies” who had joined the a capella group recently! They read out fun, teasing bios for each newb and then asked them to mimic a certain sound on the spot. Some of the interesting ones were the sound of a vending machine, ripping off a piece of tape, and a plane taking off. All in all I loved their camaraderie on stage and how they made it clear they really think of Amazin’ Blue as a found family.
At the end they sang their alumni song and invited any Amazin’ Blue alums from the audience to come up and sing it with them. An alum jogged up to the stage and took over the percussion and absolutely DOMINATED it. It’s never too late in life for me to learn how to beatbox right? If I do I’m going to add it to my resume.
Something I didn’t know is that both Amazin’ Blue and State of Fifths release studio albums! You can check them out on Spotify here and here. Support your friendly neighborhood a capella groups!
