The Sing-Off: Shore Thing

Sorry about the late recap.

I went to see “Drive” on Monday morning, so I’m just now catching on the programming I missed. (Also, I’m still a bit traumatized by all the brutal murders in that movie.)

Anyway, the eight groups in the second bracket of “The Sing-Off” made their debuts on Monday. They kicked off the evening with a solid rendition of My Chemical Romance’s “Sing.” Personally, I liked being able to tell that the dozens of voices on stage weren’t always blending quite perfectly, but it was still a very good way to kick off the night.

Two more groups went home by the end of the two-hour extravaganza. Let’s break them down, in order of appearance.

Darthmouth Aires: Their performance of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” was a really great, energetic way to start the night. Then again, the song started off with a bang and pretty much stayed there, making for an upbeat but slightly stagnant performance. Lead singer Michael had plenty of charisma, but I was just as drawn in by what the entire group was singing. In fact, (as Ben Folds pointed out) there were a few instances where they kind of drowned him out a bit.

Pentatonix: On the other hand, I LOVED Pentatonix’s electro pop arrangement of Katy Perry’s “E.T.”, even if it did sort of collapse a bit toward the end. The three lead singers are solid (especially soulful white boy/head honcho Scott), but I was really blown away by their bassist and their beat boxer, the best damn vocal percussionist/cello player on the Internet. Definitely looking forward to hearing what else this group has up its sleeve.

Messiah’s Men: The fact that Messiah Men’s story — a group of refugees from Nigeria who bonded together through music — is the most interesting thing about them is both the best and worst thing I can say about their time on the show. On the one hand, they’re a living, breathing testament to the power of music. On the other hand, their performance was completely boring. The lead singer had a good voice, and the background singers created an impressive sound together (much smarter, more qualified people can break down their vocal prowess), but there just wasn’t much else going on performance-wise to compete with the other group’s on this show.

Sonos: Plenty of acapella groups SAY they like to take popular songs and turn them on their heads, but Sonos actually did it. Their take on “Wicked Game” was certainly the most polarizing performance of the night, but I was fascinated by it and I particularly enjoyed their lightning fast vocal percussionist. In fact, I actually tuned out when they slowed things down to match Chris Isaak’s original…and revealed the flaws in their sparse sound. (Special Acapella Correspondent Erica says they need to add a baritone.) Also, even if they fall short of “The Sing-Off” crown, I hope we get to see what they can do with their pedals in the finale. Still, given that the most interesting thing about them was their arrangement, they need to prove that they can deliver awe-inspiring vocals.

The Dartmouth Aires and Pentatonix cruised to the next round leaving Sonos to edge out Messiah’s Men and deliver a swan song that was better than their actual performance. (Hate when that happens!) Anyway, on to the next foursome.

The Collective: The group of Nashville solo artists was put together by Streetcorner Symphony’s Jeremy Lister, so expectations were somewhat high. I thought the opening verse was very strong and highlighted lead singer Ruby’s fantastically husky tone. Unfortunately, things quickly fell apart during the messy, underwhelming chorus. (If you can’t blow it out like Adele — and most people can’t — you shouldn’t even try.) They never recovered afterwards and had the predictable blending issues from a group of soloists thrown together. Oh yeah…there’s also the fact that we’re all pretty much done with “Rolling in the Deep.”

Soul’d Out: Sorry, but these preppy high school kids looked downright silly and while they were misguidedly singing the hippy-dippy, “Aquarius” portion of the song. At least they sounded good because the performance didn’t get much better when it jumped to “Let the Sunshine In.” I just remember a mish-mash of sound and color punctuated by the lead singer’s spazztastic facial expressions. Other than that, I really liked it.

North Shore (pictured, left): Full disclosure: I was expecting to roll my eyes at these guys the same way I did when Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town lasted WAY longer on this show than I thought they should have. (What can I say? I hate old people, apparently.) Anyway, I’m delighted to say North Shore gave my absolute favorite performance of the night with their fun take on “Runaround Sue.” I loved their lead singer, who gave us just the right amount of charisma without veering into cheese, and I love their bass guy, who really looks like a retired cop to me for some reason. Note to Messiah’s Men: North Shore managed to completely charm and entertain a live and TV audience with a no-frills, low-choreography performance.

The Deltones: To be perfectly honest, I don’t remember too much about this performance. I remember that Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home” was an oddly somber way to finish the evening, and an even odder choice for a group looking to make a splashy debut. Lead singer Jessica was very impressive early on, and once the rest of the group kicked in they helped carry her to a good performance. The problem is (as you can tell) they didn’t leave much of a mark.

This elimination was a little tougher, but the high school kids of Soul’d Out were sent home in favor of the more experienced (but more train wreck-y Collective). The kids were cute, but I didn’t really see them evolving into anything great. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s group needs to get its Collective ass in gear.

So what’d you think of this episode? Am I imagining things or is Shawn Stockman doing a significantly better job this year as a judge? Anyone else weirded out by the oddly quick cameo from Committed, last year’s winner? (Can they at least get on stage?) Finally, were you surprised that Messiah’s Men were eliminated? (I feel that if we’d been sending them back to Nigeria instead of Minneapolis they might still be around.)