This was my third Rockapella concert, a mere two days after the one at the Birchmere. Boy, was I ever on a Rockapella high when that weekend was over! My dad, my brother Vince, and I drove up from Virginia to Long Island, making the trip in about eight hours. Actually, as Vince would point out, he and Dad did all the driving; I just shelled out the money for the tolls and gas.

Having made it all the way to Long Island without any major mishaps, we settled down for an entertaining evening. For posterity's sake, I suppose I should note at this point that the concert was in benefit of Camp Heartland, a summer camp for children with AIDS. The setlist here almost exactly mirrored the one from the Birchmere concert, which was all to the good as it meant Vince knew exactly where to take pictures. They opened with Lift Up (Scott didn't run into his mic stand this time), which led straight into Dancing in the Streets. Then I Am Your Man, Just You, Just Me, and Have a Little Faith.

Barry has been breezing through his "Support the Arts" speech lately, saying that he's not talking to the right people. The people he should be talking to are the stodges in the White House who wouldn't listen anyway. (My words, not his) But he did observe that it would be great if you could change just one letter and turn the Arms Race into the Arts Race. At this concert Barry also breezed through his Tennessee Ernie Ford intro ("we *were* poor, but we had more than one record"), and talked about the cause for which they were singing. It was very nice and well thought out, and try as I might I cannot remember a word of it. Sorry. I do remember that he ended by saying, "And now, I'm going to sing a really silly song," before singing Sixteen Tons.

Next came Kevin's announcement of his wife's pregnancy which, of course, led into A Change in My Life. As he put it, "We're going to sing a song called Change because I'll be doing a lot of that in a few months." Good to know that he's anticipating taking his fair share of baby maintenance. I did tell him after the concert that he shouldn't be overwhelmingly surprised if the baby turns out to be a boy. The idea hadn't even occurred to him, apparently, because he expressed amazement when I told him that the tests performed to discover the baby's gender aren't always 100% accurate. Well, at least I warned him.

They finished the first half with Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, which I never get tired of seeing. During intermission I mingled with the other fans and got to put some faces with some of the names I know, and you know who you are. I am so glad to have met you, ladies. I hope we get to see many more concerts together.

They opened the second half with Love Potion #9 and Heard it Through the Grapevine. Then Elliott told his Hawaii story (see my Birchmere review), this time *without* any heckling from any Douglas Adams fans who might have been in the audience. This was followed by Let's Get Away From it All which Elliott said was a tribute to the late Frank Sinatra, who had, apparently, also sung it. I have to say that I think Rockapella probably sings it better than "Old Blue Eyes" ever did. No offense to any Sinatra fans who may be reading this, but he just didn't appeal to me.

Now it was time to pick the Pretty Woman of the evening. Kevin selected a little 4 year old girl named Chrissy, and as he brought her up into the stage lights he said, "I like your hair, Chrissy." And we could see why; she had hair exactly like Kevin's! Kevin introduced her to all the other guys: Barry shook her hand, said "hi" in a very low voice, and the poor girl visibly flinched. Elliott shook her hand and said, "Hi, Chrissy. I'm married." Jeff took her hand, dropped to one knee, and said, "Hi, Chrissy. I'm not!" Cute, but it went right over her little curly head. During the song she sat frozen in her chair looking apprehensive despite their best efforts to win her over. My favourite picture of the whole evening was when Scott assumed a typical muscleman's pose in an attempt to show off his biceps. Whoo hoo! It had us older girls panting, but Chrissy didn't seem interested. During her dance with Scott she just stood there while he held her hand and did the twist. But she *did* very obediently walk over to Kevin at the appropriate time. At least she wasn't crying or calling for her mother. Afterward she told some of the older fans that she enjoyed it, but she sure seemed scared while she was up there.

The next song they sang was Don't Tell Me You Do, which is my very most favourite song. I think this a beautiful song, the best Scott has ever written, and I hope he doesn't ever change it the way he did I'll Hear Your Voice. I know I can't be the only fanatical chickapella who listens to the message on the Rockapella phone line. Sometime early last year, Scott left his first and only solo message there. He began by saying, "I've never done this before so I don't know how long I can talk." This was quite obvious as he rambled on and on and on. (Not that I minded!) He talked about some of the music he was writing: "I'm working on a new song. Let me play the demo for you." (pause) "I don't have the demo handy; I'll sing a little." And he sang the chorus of Don't Tell Me. This was well before the release of the latest CD, so I didn't know what the song was, but having Scott sing it in my ear was pretty thrilling, even if it was just a recording. When I heard it on the CD I immediately recognized it as Scott's phone serenade. It instantly became my all-time favourite Rockapella song.

After that beautiful song Kevin announced that Scott had written all the original songs that they sing. And from that Scott launched right into his "pretty boy" schtick. This time he actually broke down in tears, causing the audience to "awww!" piteously. Barry tried to cheer him up, "Let's hear it for Scott!" and we all cheered, clapped, and whistled. Scott reveled in it for a moment, then sank back down into his depression. Speaking for myself, I am more turned on by Scott the pretty boy than by Barry the testosterone charged stud. But Barry's cute, too. Anyway, Barry then glossed over his Fabio story, saying it wasn't even funny anymore since the commercial in question is no longer airing. Then Elliott said, "I laughed."

"What?" Barry said, momentarily thrown off track.

"I laughed, every time," Elliott repeated.

"You did?!" Barry said in a tone with just the right mix of incredulity and disgust. "Never mind, just start the song." Which was, of course, Sixty Minute Man.

Finally Kevin asked if we remembered the show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (Of course we did!) Kevin went on to say how "we had so much fun on that show," but Scott stopped him, saying, "These people couldn't mistake you for that other guy; he was taller."

Kevin had to agree: "Yeah, he had less hair, too."

Well, what it all boiled down to was Kevin wanted to sing the Carmen theme song. At first the other guys balked, but, of course, they eventually agreed to let him try it. "But before we sing the song," Scott said, "there's something that has to happen first. Do you know what that is?"

"Oh, yeah!" Kevin said enthusiastically. "I've watched the show; I know what happens." He turned to the audience, stared at us for a minute, then turned back to Scott. "I've forgotten what happens; you'll have to tell me."

"Okay. Well, the kid would lose, and then the host would say..."

"Wait, the kid would lose?" Kevin interrupted. "You mean this is a loser's song?"

"Well, sometimes the kid would win," Scott explained patiently, "but most of the time he would lose; it was a tough game. I thought you said you'd watched the show before."

"I *have* watched the show. Once."

"Well, the kid would lose," Scott continued, "and the host would say--What do you mean, 'once'?!"

After a little more bickering, Kevin finally turned to us and said, "There's one more thing you have to do; you know what it is!" To which we replied, "Do it, Rockapella!" at the top of our lungs.

"That was pitiful," Scott announced. "They were fine, but you were awful." So they gave Kevin one more try and then they finally sang Carmen Sandiego, featuring, as always, Jeff's magnificent drum solo.

When they walked off the stage, we leaped to our feet wanting more, but we were a little startled when they came back out carrying a big white bucket. We had almost forgotten about the raffle tickets we had bought before the concert. There were five lucky winners including Stacey Pilson. The boys obviously enjoyed doing the raffle. Scott pulled the last ticket and as he read the number, someone with a very close number groaned loudly. "Oh, that hurt!" Scott sympathized. The last raffle winner got a shower of the remaining tickets from Barry, who said he'd always wanted to do that. Jeff offered to raffle off his water bottle (and I heard a couple takers). He authenticated it further by taking a swig, then licking the mouth profusely. "Don't gross them out!" Barry admonished him. Before the encores, Rockapella had a letter read to them from Thomas Gulotta (related to Phil?) and the county of Nassau, which thanked them for donating their talents to Camp Heartland. Very touching.

The first encore they sang was the Up on the Roof/What a Wonderful World medley off-mic, and this time Scott remembered all the words. Hooray! As the boys climbed back up on the stage, the shouted requests for Zombie Jamboree that we had been hearing for the whole second half got louder. The boys were trying to ignore it, but Scott was about to say something when a guy behind us decided to change horses in midstream and yelled "Ellie!" at the top of his lungs. Scott looked in his direction and said pointedly, "You are too loud." And without further ado they started singing Keep on Smiling, which seems to be their signature "goodbye, go home, we're tired" song. ( The King's Singers use Manana, Iguana for that purpose; just thought you should know.)

After the concert, the really devoted fans willing to shell out $50 per person got to attend a reception. The food there was very heavy, pasta and the like. Dad and Vince liked it, though. I had only just started eating when Rockapella walked in and my appetite went right out the window. My stomach just tightened up and I couldn't even think about food, much less eat it. Dad and Vince weren't very sympathetic so I joined Stacey and Donna and we sipped at caffeine enriched sodas while respectfully waiting for the boys to finish eating. All the guys remembered us from the Birchmere (well, heck, it was only two days ago), and said things like, "Oh hey, it's you again. How are you? How was the trip up?" Well, the trip up (and back) was harrowing in spots, but I think it was well worth it. Vincent doesn't; he says he's never going back to New York. I'll just have to do a little arm twisting because I need him to navigate. I would definitely do it again, Rockapella. Just give me plenty of time to plan.

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