Rockapella’s back at the Birchmere!Yaaaay! Actually, the Birchmere is probably my least favourtie concert venue since they don’t allow cameras. But the show was still enjoyable. I went with my parents, brother Gordon, and friend Craig.
We arrived about an hour before show time, but the hall was already nearly full. I had brought shortbread cookies for the guys and sent them backstage via the stage manager. We ordered some dinner but I was so excited I really didn’t eat much. Something about Rockapella seems to shrink my stomach.
The show started with Scott wandering onto the stage singing I am Your Man. Kevin joined him on the chorus, then the other three came out for the second verse. I’m afraid this song has lost a little of its appeal for me the way they perform it now.
Scott gave a quick introduction of the band: “We are rock, a cappella, no instruments. Anything that sounds like a drum is coming from the mouth and throat of Jeff Thacher!” After presenting the rest of the group they swung straight into Moments of You.
Barry came forward when the song was over to make more thorough introductions: “Our highest, most stratospheric tenor, Scott Leonard.”
Scott came forward, struck a pose, and made as if to sing into his microphone. No sound came out.
“Now that’s high,” Barry commented. “Our second most highest tenor, Mr. Kevin Wright.”
Kevin stepped up and spoke in a nasal chipmunk voice, “Hello, this is how I talk, so you won’t be hearing much from me tonight.”
Amid the giggles that followed, Barry stated, “I never know what Kevin’s going to do; it’s always scary. Our baritone, Elliott Kerman.”
“This is what I do,” Elliott told us and sang, “Oo oo, oo oo—“
“Thank you, El!” Barry cut in. “Our amazing vocal percussionist, Jeff Thacher.”
Jeff took a bow while doing a drum riff.
“And I’m Barry, the bass, I hope you had that figured out by now.” Once the laughter subsided he continued, “Since the last time we were here we’ve made a Christmas record. [cheers] Yes, and this next song is not from it! It’s from Rockapella 2 and it’s called This isn’t Love.” And thus they began singing one of Scott’s beautiful, heartbroken ballads.
Now Elliott came forward and told us that their new Christmas record is #23 on the independent billboards. At this point I need to mention that the guys were all wearing dark colours, Kevin most notable in black leather pants, a dark shirt, and blue leather jacket. (Ooh, nice!) But Elliott was wearing a black shirt with Christmas red pants. Very striking, and they looked good on him. But according to his report, “You might think that Rockapella is just a bunch of nice guys, but obviously we’re not, because before the show I came out and asked, ‘So, we’re wearing our colourful outfits tonight, right?’ “ We laughed and cheered, and Elliott quickly jumped into Let’s Get Away From it All. When the song was over Scott proclaimed, “Elliott Kerman and his pants of fire!”
The next song was Use Me, a kinky little cover that Scott sings. Of all the songs that he’s covered, this is probably one of my favourites. On the second chorus Barry sang “till you use me up!” while Scott lip-synched. Nice range! ;~)
Barry was up next. He told us that radio DJs always find it necessary to remark on his voice. (Well, it is pretty remarkable.) One even asked him, “Is that you real voice?”
“No,” Barry replied in a nasal voice, “this is my real voice. There’s a little switch on my microphone: it goes wimpy, [normal] manly, [nasal] wimpy, [normal] manly…”
This all served as an intro for Sixteen Tons, my favourite of Barry’s solos. He sang the first line and Scott suddenly called out, “Wimpy!” so he sang it again in his nasal voice. “Thank you!” Scott grinned.
Next they sang That’s the Way, an upbeat little ditty by Scott, followed by Where Would We Be?, a sentimental tune by Kevin and Elliott. Before the latter Kevin asked us what everyone wanted for Christmas.
“Two front teeth!” some wiseacre called out.
“Rockapella CDs!” was another shout.
“Right answer,” Elliott nodded.
Then Kevin told us that they had been on the Home Shopping Network selling their CDs. “That’s why we’re #23 on the billboard charts,” Elliott added with a grin.
Finally they sang a Christmas song (this was supposed to be a holiday concert), Silver Bells. Then they closed the first half with Doorman of My Heart, and this time Scott fudged the place where a cuss word might go. Perhaps he got complaints.
They opened the second half with Dancing in the Streets. We noticed that Elliott had changed to a pair of medium brown pants. As he stated when the song was over, “I will not be had for the entire show!” He followed that up by announcing Rockapella’s “greatest holiday song”, which turned out to be Holiday Wake-Up (from the second Folgers commercial).
Now Elliott gave congratulations to a childhood friend who was in the audience and who had recently gotten married. He kept telling us about this friend, about his job and that he was moving. “In fact,” he said finally, “why don’t I just give you my best man speech?”
“And then you can give us their phone number, and where they’re living now!” Kevin added.
“The U-Haul I think,” Elliott returned.
This eventually wound down and they began singing Don’t Do It. I think Barry conveyed the sentiments of the whole band when he added “Thank God that’s over!” into the song’s intro.
Next came Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, one of my ultimate favourites. They still sing this song in double time; I wonder if they’ll ever record it that way. I dearly love the PI intro to this number, and Scott’s shimmying never fails to set the lady fans to screaming. Though he seems to be growing weary of that, as evidenced by the hip “injury” he suffered in the middle of the song. He did it so realistically that I almost thought he had truly hurt himself. And he made a great show afterward of sitting very painfully on a stool, gasping and flinching in supposed agony. But not to worry, he was back to his usual moves in the next song.
Which was Pretty Woman. Kevin came down into the audience to schmooze with the fans and pick his victim. Toward the back of the hall was a man who loudly proclaimed himself a 15 year fan.
“That’s great,” Kevin said. “The only problem is…he’s a guy!” (Surely a 15 year fan would know that Kevin wasn’t coming down to pick a Pretty Man. I’m not even sure Rockapella has been in existence that long.)
Kevin chose a young girl named Kristin, who looked about six or seven years old. She was very shy and absolutely stiff with terror as Kevin brought her up to the stage. The guys tried to draw her out to no avail.
Kevin: Kristin, what do you want for Christmas?
Kristin: I don’t know.
Kevin: I bet you do know. I bet you tell your parents every day. Now what do you want?
Kristin: I don’t know.
Kevin: Okaaaay…do you like…NSYNC?
Kristin: I don’t know.
Kevin: Actually, that’s the right answer!
Seeing that any further attempts at banter would be futile, Kevin quickly started the song. Kristin sat unmoving on her stool throughout. When it came time for her to go dance with Scott she gripped the stool tightly and wouldn’t come. Scott had to bodily lift her off the stool and lead her away. Then she stood stiff as a board while he held her hand and did the twist. But she did go to Kevin at the appropriate time. She was rewarded for her participation with a Rockapella Christmas CD, then escorted back to her table.
Now another Christmas ditty, Winter Wonderland. This is not normally a favourite of mine, but the way the boys sing it I can’t help but love it.
Then came the Pretty Boy schtick, but with a different twist. Scott stated as usual that he was thought of as the girlie man of Rockapella, “but no more! A revelation has occurred. There is a man on this stage who colours his hair! And not subtly I might add.”
He referred to Barry, who has bleached his greying hair. It actually looks pretty good on him, and it seems to have boosted Scott’s confidence in his own manliness. “So how does it feel,” he asked of Barry, “to be the Tinkerbell of the group?”
“Demeaning,” Barry replied in his wimpy voice, then back to manly, “Actually, I kind of like it. I’ve always wanted to be a Tinkerbell.”
“You’ve finally blossomed,” Scott noted.
“Yeah,” Barry agreed, “I’ve blossomed right into mid-life crisis. And it was either this or start getting letters from the AARP.”
He next told us of his love for the rock singer Sting. “I wanted, before the chance completely passed me by, to look at least a little like him.” And he does look like him, a little. He also wanted to cover a Sting song, but the band wouldn’t go for it, mainly owing to the major difference in range between Sting and Barry Carl. “So instead I’ll sing another low, suggestive, du-woppy song.” And that song was, of course, Sixty Minute Man.
In a sharp reversal of styles the next song was People Change. I looooooove this one. It’s tied with Don’t Tell Me You Do as my most favourite Scott ballad. He writes ‘em so beautiful…
As soon as the applause died Scott said, “There’s one more thing you’ve gotta do. You know what it is!”
We were caught off guard and the resulting “Do it, Rockapella!” was a little weak. Scott gave us two more tries before they swung into the ever-famous Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, featuring Jeff Thacher on drums. His solo was magnificent. At one point he was making a sound like a brush on a hi-hat (or something like that). Someone at a front table cheered and he stopped abruptly, saying, “Oh, you like that one, huh?” before doing it some more. After a few more minutes of drumming the other guys joined him and they finished the song.
Traditionally this is the show’s finish, but you know we enthusiastic fans can’t let the boys go without a few encores. First they did White Christmas off-mic. It sounds ever so beautiful in four-part harmony, though of course, this means Jeff has to sit out. (Couldn’t they work in a fifth part somehow?)
Jeff was back for the next encore, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I never realized until Rockapella sang it that this song has more than one verse. The first one is all I’ve ever heard before.
Encore #3 was Tempted, always a favourite, if for no other reason than it gives Jeff a very brief solo. Then Blah Blah Blah, another favourite of mine. But it seemed a little off at the beginning, I’m not sure why.
Next was Zombie Jamboree, everyone’s favourite. I truly love this song, and if those Birchmere waiters will not stop trying to clear tables and pass out checks while the guys are performing I may have to hurt them! Kevin noticed one walking right in front of the stage as he was singing and made a face at him. Speaking of Kevin, he lost an eyeball again, and during the third verse he tried to play kickball with it, the results of which gave him the giggles.
They left the stage after Zombie, but we leaped to our feet, screaming, hollering, chanting, “More! More! More!” I heard a few shouts for the Grinch song, but they didn’t do that one, more’s the pity.
“You guys seriously rock!” Barry told us before they sang Hold Out for Christmas. Then they finished up with the standard goodbye song, Keep on Smiling. Much to my annoyance, some waiters were still trying to clear tables. One was right in front of the stage and Scott gestured toward him while singing, “Sitting in a honky tonk café, nobody listening to a word I’m sayin’. Too busy drinkin' anyway...” He glared at the guy as he sang, but was ignored. (What a jerk!)
Talked to the guys afterward, though we seemed to wait a long time before they came out. I had enlarged the group picture taken at the Camp Heartland concert in May for them to sign. Which they all did, commenting on the redeye as they signed.
Kevin was a true sweetheart and gets bonus points for asking me why I haven’t written anymore poetry for them. I’ll have to see if I can work up something for him at least.
Barry was also sweet and I really love his hair. It looks even better close up and does seem to take some of the years off.
Scott I saved for last. I told him Keith Wilson (from Cats) was back at Disney, and that was about all I had the presence of mind for. I have got to start keeping a list of the things I want to ask the guys. But after talking to them all I was on cloud nine. I should be okay for the next six months; after that I start suffering from withdrawal.