The Grand Finale

Our first international barbershop convention has come and gone, and we had a great week. The combination of going to convention events and visiting with David, Barbara and all the other family members made time fly. It's hard to believe that we'll be headed home tomorrow.

The quartet finals last night were great. Old School, Storm Front and Metropolis all took some jabs at the society and I think that it hurt them in the judging. Their routines were very well done and their singing was great, but I guess the judges felt pressure to not reward such behavior. Too bad. I've always thought that humor was a big part of barbershop. I think that Old School took the biggest hit, because, I thought their singing was the best of all ten quartets and Joe Connelly, their lead, is a legendary, three-time gold winner already. He had a serious voice crack/ meltdown at the end of one of their songs during the quarter-finals, but I still think that they are the best choice for our April show. They made the final ten, even with that mistake and were outstanding the rest of the way. The judging seems to emulate the way figure skating is judged. Very subjective, and political.

The top five quartets are listed below, with their three-day score totals.

O.C. Times 8074 Gold
Crossroads 8023 Silver
State Line Grocery 7973 Bronze(1)
Redline 7941 Bronze(2)
Old School 7893 Bronze(3)

So, it's time to head for home. On Tuesday night, my quartet has a gig, singing for a pre-game party at the Akron Aeros baseball game. Later in the month, we go back with the DerbyTown Chorus to sing the national anthem at a game. The quartet has a couple of other bookings in July and we'll be singing with the chorus at Copley and Fairlawn. Then in August, the chorus will sing at Stan Hywet Hall (the Seiberling Family Home) with the Akron Brass Band. I hope I can put some of the things that I learned here at the convention into practice, and improve my singing.