Spring 2022

## Summary

The spring 2022 a cappella concert is remembered as a time of triumphant triumph for the Kalamadudes. The group debuted their T-shirts with the infamous "shopping bag" design, together with matching cowboy hats and assorted flannels to complement the Southern-fried flavor of the repertoire. The group also incorporated more creative and varied choreography than they had utilized in recent memory. Garrett Hanson, already known as a virtuosic beatboxer, performed their first vocal solo. All the remaining solos went to graduating seniors. The Dudes' set culminated in one of their most legendary performances: "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.

Before the quarterly a cappella concert, the Dudes teamed up with Premium Orange for a performance at Pride Ball. This combination, dubbed the "Premium Dudes," performed a modified version of Premo's 2019 arrangement of Queen's "Somebody to Love," with soloist Ruth Butters. The performance, which took place in the Hicks atrium, helped to drum up excitement for the coming concert.

The Dudes opened the concert with a fiery and dynamic rendition of "House of the Rising Sun." Garrett, whose vocal percussion skills were well known, sang the solo, while Lydia Longton performed perc. The second verse, featuring an octave jump and a shift to belting, elicited audible gasps at both dress rehearsal and concert performances as Garrett unleashed a torrent of power hitherto unwitnessed by the audience. Garrett stood on a box at center stage while the group formed a hypnotically spinning circle around them. For the final verse, as the song's enchanting riff gave way to dense monorhythmic harmony, the group broke from the circle and formed an inverted arc along the edge of the stage. In this arc formation, Mitch, Ruth, and Daniel introduced newly elected directors Garrett Hanson, Roze Kerr, Evan Vicker, Raven Montagna, and Evan Rago to the audience.

The group took a typically simple choreographic approach for their second song, Josh Turner's "Your Man," with soloist Daniel Whitcomb. Matthew cheekily introduced the song by announcing that Daniel was going to "do 'Your Man'." This number featured the group standing in a line and doing a belt-buckle-centric two-step behind Daniel. Daniel began the song on the edge of the stage and wandered into the crowd and back onstage as they sang the first verse. During the instrumental bridge starring the baritone section, Daniel dramatically removed their flannel, which turned up the heat on the already sultry crowd reaction. At the end of the song, they threw their hat into the crowd.

The Dudes returned to their trademark arc formation for their second set opener, Cage the Elephant's "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked," featuring soloist Matthew Swarthout. Group choreo remained restrained to allow space for Matthew's high-energy theatrics. Different members emerged to act out the narrative of each verse, Ruth playing the sex worker in the first verse, Daniel playing the mugger in the second verse, and Garrett playing the disgraced preacher in the third verse. The second verse marked the reunion of Matthew and Daniel as a comedic duo, after their crowd-pleasing performances as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch, respectively, in Festival Playhouse's 2019 production of *Twelfth Night*.

Before their final number, the Dudes stacked their remaining hats upon Roze, who carried them offstage on their head. Daniel gave a long introduction for the song—"In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, featuring soloist Ruth Butters—playing up its seriousness, while chairs and a stool were brought out and the group arranged themselves in a Limelightesque formation, sitting and standing at different levels and looking in various directions. On Friday night, Daniel forgot to give starting pitches after this very serious introduction, causing uproarious laughter when Garrett reminded them. On the first beat of the song, everyone snapped their heads to face forward. The arrangement began at the second verse, leading into the big drum fill. After Garrett performed this fill, however, the group smoothly transitioned into an arc while stagehands Tavvi and Xander removed the chairs and stool, and the rest of the song was in fact Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Mitch Baty sang solo, but on the night of dress rehearsal, it was decided that Lydia Longton would sing the second verse and chorus because it was her final concert, and all the other seniors had solos. This also conveniently created a diversion for Mitch to discreetly dance over to the side of the stage. At the breakdown of the song, members of each section lovingly hung their arms around each other and gradually joined in to sing the verse together, beginning with the basses. For the final choruses, Mitch returned wearing a trenchcoat sneakily provided by the stagehands. For this performance, Mitch is remembered as a conquering hero.

## Members

### Active members

* Mitch Baty
* Ruth Butters
* Garrett Hanson
* Cole Horman
* Ash Kaericher
* Roze Kerr
* Lydia Longton
* Raven Montagna
* Evan Rago
* Matthew Swarthout
* Evan Vicker
* Daniel Whitcomb

### Inactive members

* Tavvi Anderson
* Xander Leblanc

### Member details

Ash, Matthew, and Xander joined the group this quarter. Both Xander and Tavvi ended up withdrawing as members, but they joined the group as stagehands for the concert.