If you have not yet found the time to make it to an a cappella concert here at the University of Michigan then you should make time!  The Michigan A Cappella community is one of the most eclectic and diverse in the country and internationally recognized.

Spookappella, a Halloween themed a capella concert, featured three stunning UofM groups: (g)imble, The Harmonettes and Maize Mirchi.  with special guest Scotch Tape from Malacaster College in Minnesota.  Each group took the stage in their own creative Halloween attire to give the audience a night of a cappella bliss.

Scotch Tape opened the show, followed by headliner (g)imble with their rendition of “Forever and Always,” originally performed by Taylor Swift.  Marianne Gruzwalski, one of (g)imble’s powerhouse soloists, was on the solo.  You would not ever expect such a powerful voice to come out of such a small girl.  You couldn’t take your eyes off this one as she emulated and extraordinary amount of confidence and sass on this song.  What a great performance it was.

The “sometimes sassy, always classy” Harmonettes officially opened the first half of the show with “Nothing Ever Hurt Like You” sung by Lauren Morrison, “Stay” sung by Brennan Couturier and “Goodbye to You” sung by Sarah Short.  This group of classy ladies brought a lighthearted vibe to the stage throughout their set.  Chelsea Selden brought some fantastic vocal percussion to the first two songs in the set.  This girl arguably had the most charismatic stage presence throughout this evening of performance.  There was not a moment when she was not radiating a contagious smile.  Additionally, her continuous step touches made it nearly impossible to sit still while watching.  All in all, the Harmonettes put on a great show!

Maize Mirchi, one of the newest additions to the Michigan a cappella community, opened the second half of the show.  Mirchi is Michigan’s premier South Asian a cappella group and is known for fusing Bolloywood Indian music with more contemporary music  They most definitely know how to capture an audience.  While some of their costumes were a bit distracting, they put on a wonderful show.

(g)imble closed both the first and second halves and had a number of beautiful pieces, most notable being “Either Way” by Guster and “Alone” by Heart.  “Either Way” was performed as a group song as the solos were distributed across each member of the group.  This moving piece provided the audience with some of the most beautiful harmonies of the evening.  However, “Alone” stole the show completely.  With another one of (g)imble’s powerhouse soloists taking the lead, the audience was left with nothing but chills.  Erica Searcy (otherwise known as “Fiercy”) tore the roof off with this song.  While she first seemed a bit apprehensive, she soon settled into what would become the best song of the evening.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening of a cappella.  Be sure to look out for the many a cappella concerts that are held at the end of the semester!  It’s most definitely a quintessential Michigan experience!

I don’t usually go to shows by myself, but I didn’t really have a choice for this one.  Between a show at Arbor Vitae, a Man The Hunter/Swimsuit show in Detroit, and of course, Bob Dylan at Hill Auditorium, most of my friends had other ideas about how to spend their nights.  And unfortunately so did most of Ann Arbor’s concert-going population.  And it was a Thursday, after all.

Not to say this show was poorly attended, but the crowd was definitely slow to form.  I got to the Blind Pig at 10pm and the opening band had just begun setting up, and there were about twenty people there, which includes staff, roadies, and members of three bands.  Thank god for free popcorn.

Purling Hiss, the opening band, were a power trio with a pretty heavy sound, and they certainly rocked hard but there simply weren’t enough people there to really get excited about it.  For a punk band, I found it surprising how present the guitar was in their music – some solos sounded straight out of 80s hair metal!  What was most impressive, though, was how tight they sounded as a band.  They did a great job of filling the room, which can be difficult for power trios.

There’s something distinctive about the appearance Kurt Vile and his backing band, the violators.  It goes beyond the long, curly head of hair on each member of the band.  I think it might be their noses.  They all have pretty large noses.

Anyway, with three guitars and a drummer, Kurt Vile’s live band wasn’t exactly what I expected.  Their sound was related to his studio sound, but, well, much louder.  Most of the selections were songs from his 2009 album, Childish Prodigy, which happens to be my least favorite album of his.  Drone-y and thick, repetitive and emotional, the set sort of exhausted the listener, but in a good way.  I was happy to have seen and heard this arrangement of his songs, but honestly, I think I would have preferred a show with just him and a guitar.  At one point when an effect pedal ran out of batteries and the band was busy figuring out the issue, he played an older song of his solo and it was a welcome change of pace.  Nonetheless, the cryptic emotions in his songs were preserved, and it gave me chills to see him singing with one eye peering out at the crowd from behind his hair, wincing during the most climactic parts of the songs.

If The Soft Pack sound just a little sloppy on their record, their live show is quite the opposite.  One of the best balanced and rhythmically solid bands I’ve seen live, the raw energy of their pop-rock was astoundingly present at Thursday night’s show.  Between a drummer who played standing up, and a guitarist who made funny concentrated faces as he played, you could tell they were having as much fun as the audience.  Each song was an absolute joy, and a crowd-pleaser in its own way.  Playing songs off their full length, a new tune or two, old songs from when they were called the Muslims, and even a cover, The Soft Pack demanded the crowd’s attention then held it for over an hour.  I actually had to leave early so I could get up for a math exam the following morning (which went really poorly, by the way, thanks for asking).  But by the time I left, the energy in the place was amazing, despite the relatively small crowd which had now grown to fill about 1/3rd of the venue.

So overall I think the only issue with the show was the lack of attendance.  But that’s what you get when you have a show on a Thursday when Bob Dylan is in town.

The theme for this post is do something different.

I’ve spent the majority of this week in pendulum of feeling like I should be doing Halloween activities and justifying why I haven’t been that excited about them.  As a result, I’ve decided to take a step back from the habitual production of Halloween, and go see a production instead, and no, it is not the on stage production of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Instead it is a play along the likes of Aronofsky’s Pi, exploring the nature of infinity and connections among narratives. Produced by Complicite Theater Company, the play is experimental in nature, as you can tell by their website.

UMS and The Michigan Theater will be rebroadcasting Complicite’s A Disappearing Number this Sunday October 31 at 2:00 pm.  Originally premiering in 2007, the highly regarded play will be broadcasted from the National Theater in London in high-definition. While I have never seen a play broadcasted, usually turned away by the thought of theater being ‘broadcasted,’ I find that maybe this will actually add to the play rather than take away from it.  

A Disappearing Number is an exploration of mathematics as well as creativity.  It follows relationships across space, time, and cultures; focusing on the unique collaboration between two very different mathematicians in the 1910’s, a Cambridge professor and a young genius from India.  While the story is interwoven with the present day experiences of an Indian-American women. The play feautures a tableaux of mathematics across the screen which allows for some beautiful intersections of theater, music, film, and numbers.

“A Disappearing Number” Teaser from Sven Ortel on Vimeo.

Student tickets are available from the UMS website and at the ticket office for $12.00. If you want to take a break from Halloween and see something inspiring, this may be just the ticket.

Recap:

Who: Complicite Theater Company’s A Disappearing Number
What: Broadcast from National Theater London
When: Sunday, October 31 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Where: Michigan Theater
Why: Break, Boredom, Inspire, Cultivate…
How: $12 worth of halloween candy made payable to UMS

Until then art spooksters,

Sarah