Treblemakers A Cappella, Harris Hall, Northwestern University, 10PM, November 19^th, 2016.

I left the concert with warmth and comfort.

I arrived at Harris Hall around 9:45 pm, picked up a free milk tea (which was quite good) at the lobby, and entered the hall where the performance took place. The concert stage was quite small, as the venue itself is generally used as a lecture room for Northwestern students. On back of the stage, there was a decorated chalkboard with FRIENDSGIVING written over. Yellow and orange paper leaves were carefully arranged around the letters, and together they imbued friendly warmth to the stage. There was not much besides this FRIENDSGIVING deco. It never looked Blockbuster, yet therefore the stage could retain warmth and coziness. It was more of a Puritan church than an ornate cathedral. Stage was covered with dim yellow lights, significantly reinforcing the already present warmth at stage.

The show unofficially (in my opinion) began with couple duets. Performers sang together with guitars at their hands and awkward smiles on their face, and their acts did not seem so serious; there were mistakes here and there. The duets missed timings, and sometimes played wrong notes. However, despite all this, I was not annoyed by the lack of gravity and technicality. The audience were quite loud and seemed to take these duets as pre-exercises to the actual performance; I was one of them. They felt like friendly warm-up sessions, and if this was what they had intended, I indeed felt rather comfortable than critical. After these two sessions, the official concert began (the lights dimmed, performers came out to the stage and greeted the audience, and that certain WE BEGIN! type of atmosphere possessed the stage).

The programs began with Feelin’ Good Medley, featuring Feeling Good by Michael Bublé and Bring It Back by Shawn Mendes. The entire concert lasted about 50 minutes. Most of the time during the show, a total of 17 a cappella singers sang together, often with different lead singers for different programs; some programs involved duets only, without the rest of the group. The songs diversely ranged from Lucky by Jason Mraz to Korean and Chinese songs to Sun & Moon by Above & Beyond. The programs made efforts to display and communicate both the American and the foreign, yet unintimidating, pop culture. In terms of genre, the Treblemakers were experimental, which I quite enjoyed; I especially liked their performance of Sun & Moon by Above & Beyond, since an electronic music is quite difficult to perform with voice-only. Their human creation of beats and dub bass was quite a pleasant scene to watch. Overall, the programs promoted both familiarity and diversity at the same time, which well-resonated with the concept of “Friendsgiving.”

The level of technical execution could be disputed regarding the performance. If one had expected a blockbuster a capella show, this performance probably did not fulfill that expectation; they were all students with different backgrounds who collaborated to sing and perform together, rather than professional musicians. In addition, Treblemakers is not even the largest a capella group at the school. Given all this, I did not quite have that wow moment for their individual technicality. They were overall above average, good singers, but not great singers. One singer that stood out the most was Bernetta Li, who sang Bring It Back by Shawn Mendes; she had powerful vocals and rich emotional expressions. However, although some were not great singers, all were great performers. They were loyal to the concept of FRIENDSGIVING, and their performances worked toward the values of Friendsgiving – harmony and warmth.

The value of harmony and warmth were well reinforced by Treblemakers’ performance. Because a capella is relatively unique in that it tries to perform a song with voice only, members constantly need to meticulously read others’ breaths and breaks, calibrating tone, volume, and rhythm of their vocals to create a harmony. During the performance, I saw them lightly smiling at each other, providing non-verbal cues with their swingy head nods, stomping their feet to preserve the power of stable rhythm; they were a group, reaffirming friendly harmony and warmth among themselves and the audience. The intimate exchange of voices, with each singing their assigned layer of music, made me feel like I was truly at the venue for FRIENDGIVING. The individual technical competence did not seem to matter much in comparison to their synergic energy dedicated to the values of Friendsgiving. Each member toned down if one had to, constantly readjusting themselves to show what the group, rather than an individual, can do.

The Treblemakers concert was an overall very comforting experience. They may not be the greatest singers of the school, but I came out of the concert with friendly comfort. Though I first aimed to focus on their technicality, as I found myself just smiling at their performance and friendly ambience, I realized that the power of this performance resides in harmony and the conveyance of friendly sentiments to its audiences. But at the same time, don’t mistake this comfort and warmth as being that of a grandpa watching his 6-year-old granddaughter’s talent show; the show was comforting not only because the performers themselves were familiar to audience. They worked as a team and this teamwork successfully encompassed the entire venue with amiable air.

Overall, I would gladly pay another visit to the Treblemakers concert in future. I didn’t find potential Adele or Sam Smith that night, but I found warm and comfortable friends and music. To be surrounded by college students making endeavors to comfort each other and their audience is truly a heart-warming experience. If you are all about the intensity of technical moguls, this concert may not be the one for you. But if you want that cozy and relaxed vibe created by harmony and warmth, with the diverse and familiar range of songs accompanied by appropriate teamwork, I recommend one to see the concert. It was 35 degrees F outside when I was walking back home from the concert. I don’t want to sound too dramatic here, but really the remnants of warmth and comfort from the performance helped to reduce my complaints about the fierce wind and temperature. Instead of immersing myself in coldness, I pleasantly walked back thinking about my thanksgiving plans with my friends.