The pleasant sounds of a cappella attracted a sizeable audience to Kuhl Gymnasium Saturday night, as both the renowned group The Blanks and Geneseo's own alumni group, NARD, performed.
The concert, which was part of this year's Limelight & Accents Performing Arts Series, had tickets that were a bit more expensive than for usual events. Despite the cost, the opportunity to see not only The Blanks - a group whose reputation as Ted's band on the hit TV show "Scrubs" has earned them national fame - but also four of Geneseo's most talented alumni was well worth the extra cost.
Senior Kian Bichoupan, Limelights & Accents coordinator, introduced NARD as "an alumni a cappella group that has entertained Geneseo students for many years." NARD is comprised of tenor Nick Moran, baritone Alex MacDonald, tenor and lead singer Rob Line and bass Dave Gordon.
The opening act made a fantastic entrance, running up to the stage as Europe's "The Final Countdown" played over the speakers. NARD's skit involved the group preparing to audition for "some new ABC show called 'Scrubs.'"
The audition skit allowed NARD - in hilarious and wacky costumes - to sing some of their best numbers including "The Jungle Book Medley" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as they did their best to get on the show. In a last desperate attempt to get the job, NARD even suddenly broke into the dance to Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," much to the audience's amusement.
The Blanks took the stage shortly after NARD, with an announcement introducing them as a "hilarious a cappella group of four friends known as 'Ted's Band' from the show 'Scrubs.'" The group wasted no time and jumped right into singing the classic theme to the "Underdog" cartoon from the 1960s.
Another amusing number was an original piece by songwriter and tenor Paul Perry. As he described it to the audience, "There's this Broadway show called 'The Full Monty' [that doesn't have a title song] … I thought it'd be funny if it had a title song, so I wrote one." The audience laughed as The Blanks performed Perry's song, complete with pelvic thrusts.
At one point, The Blanks actually used a talking toy as a singer in one of their songs. As tenor Sam Lloyd pointed out, "[There are songs for other holidays but] there's no song for Halloween." As a result, Mr. Pumpkin Head (a talking pumpkin decoration) was brought onto the stage and helped the group sing a song called "Happy Halloween."
The Blanks also had a hit with their medley of the five greatest rock songs in history which featured The Who's "Who Are You," "Keep On Truckin'" by the Temptations, "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas' "Carry On My Wayward Son" and, ironically, The Chordette's "Lollipop."
The show concluded with The Blanks' appearance onstage in matching Superman T-shirts to sing the "Superman" theme complete with lyrics. It was a classic ending to an amusing show.
NARD did a great job warming up the audience with their antics and The Blanks made for an enjoyable night that featured a well-chosen mix of their original work and covers. More information about upcoming Limelight & Accents shows can be found at geneseo.edu/limelightandaccents.