Reviews by Matt

Where were you? I waited for you by the box office and you never showed up. How could you pass on the chance to see the best a cappella group in the world? There were plenty of seats left, but it was your loss. You missed one hell of a show from true musicians.

On March 23, the group that has been at the forefront of a cappella music, for over two decades, Rockapella, came to Buffalo State. Everyone in attendance found out why these five guys are the best out there in any genre.

These guys are the best pure musicians in the world, and I dare you to prove me wrong. They use no back up singers and no digital manipulation, with the exception of the “guitar pickups” on Jeff Thatcher’s neck to pick up the “bass drum.” They have nothing to hide behind and that makes the fact that they can do a two-hour show all the more impressive. No matter how many times I listen to one of their songs, it blows me away that it is nothing but their voices. This was the second time I had seen them live and I still sat in awe at what I heard. To hear Scott Leonard, Kevin Wright, George Baldi and new member John
K. Brown sing in perfect harmony as Jeff provided the “drums” is a stunning thing to see in person.

The performed a mix of original songs as well as some very good covers and in between shared stories about their lives and the history of the band. They sung the obvious choices like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “Stand By Me” as well as some interesting choices like “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” and “Up A Lazy River,” songs from their childhood and from artists they respected. They brought one lucky woman on stage and serenaded her with a song using her name and “Pretty Woman.”

They also did what I will call “The Songs of Sell Out.” They sang a collection of songs from the various commercials and other projects they have done over the years, including “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” and the theme for the Today Show. They even threw in the Folgers coffee song from a commercial they did a few years ago. The highlights were the songs for a ringworm treatment and Perpetration H; the low point of selling out as described by Scott Leonard.

If you want to know how dedicated these guys are you need to look no further then George Baldi, the “bassist.” Just a few hours earlier he had, as Scott put it, “a partial root canal” and was numb. Despite this, he still did an amazing job. At one point, he told the audience that he was often asked how what his range was. He then proceeded to show just how low he could go (which is really low) and how high he could sing (higher then a man who can sing that low should be able to)

“There’s only one more thing you have to do. You know what it is.” “DO IT ROCKAPELLA” (yes, I yelled it) As one would suspect “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?,” was the big finale. Taking me back to when I would come home form school and watch as kids answered questions and then got to place lights on stick on a big map of the country where Carmen Sandeigo was hiding before winning a trip to anywhere in the U.S.

And if performing for two hours with nothing but their voices and a microphone was not enough they came back for two encores, one of which ditched the microphones. The last song they sung was “Up on the Roof/What a Wonderful World” and they left the microphones in the stand, walked to the front of the stage and sung. Even those in the back, of which I was one, could hear them perfectly. It proved once again why these guys are the best out there and that no one can even touch them when it comes to raw, unfiltered talent.