Weekend Review: Spring Sing

Spring Sing

Los Angeles Tennis Center

May 4

While many waited for hours to watch “Spider-Man 3″ on Friday, over 5,000 people decided to forgo their arachnid friend and wait hours in line to watch some of UCLA’s top musicians and performers.

Proving that there is much more to the life of a UCLA student than just studying, this year’s edition of Spring Sing showcased the talent residing in the student body for a sold-out crowd at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Students competed in five categories ““ production, a capella performance, solo performance, duet performance and band performance ““ while being judged by a panel of celebrities.

This year, acts were given the critical eye by veterans in the entertainment industry, including the likes of Patrick Renna, best known for his role as Ham in “The Sandlot,” as well as UCLA alums such as Tom Anderson, the creator of MySpace.

Sorority and fraternity productions maintained the theme of new students at orientation in their skits about the UCLA way of life. The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and the Delta Gamma sorority took top honors in their category with “Alice in Westwoodland,” the story of a new student named Alice traveling through the mysterious realm of UCLA.

With the largest number of competitors, it was hard to pick a favorite out of the Band Entry category.

Kazai Rex started the show off with its song “Ugly in the End,” while Killer Kaleidoscope rocked the house with “The Other Way Around.” Arepa brought in some Latin flavor with its song “Take My Hand (Toma Mi Mano),” which got showgoers dancing in their seats.

The winner for Band Entry, however, was Jarell Perry and the Ambassadors’ “Hopeless,” a jazzy song backed up by a big-band sound.

Horse Crash won the Best Duet Entry with their song “Please Be.” While Peter Gjerset played the melody on his guitar, Tim Han switched it up by playing the violin and providing the beat on the wooden box he was sitting on.

It was the A Capella Performance category that featured some of the best competition of the night.

While Awaken A Cappella harmonized “Isn’t She Lovely/Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” the ScatterTones used music from the band The All-American Rejects in their rendition of “Move Along/It Ends Tonight.”

But it was Bruin Harmony’s a capella version of “Ice, Ice Baby” that won over the crowd. In their hilarious performance, Bruin Harmony took the Vanilla Ice classic to new levels.

Trish Johnson won an Honorable Mention, which honors performers who had the highest overall score without winning their category, for her song, “Without you.”

The big winner of the night, however, was solo performer Katie Boeck. Winning both the Best Solo Entry and Best Overall Entry, Boeck performed her song “Colorblind” flawlessly, winning over the crowd and the judges.

Each year, the winner of the George and Ira Gershwin Award is announced during Spring Sing.

This year’s winner was none other than seven-time Oscar nominee, 27-time Grammy winner and 79-time Grammy nominee Quincy Jones. The composer/producer spoke to the crowd with the cool demeanor that people have come to expect from the Q.

However, yet again, it was Company that provided the entertainment that kept people in their seats during set changes.

With skits including a pretaped parody of “300,” to a gamer version of “Holding Out for a Hero,” complete with Guitar Hero guitars and Tetris blocks, Company had the audience laughing hysterically. Company poked fun at student-teaching assistant romantic relations and last year’s Taser incident at Powell Library.

As for missing the biggest movie opening in history, the crowd need not have worried.

Company summarized “Spider-Man 3,” which none of the members had actually seen yet, through an array of sock puppets.

In a hilarious rendition, Company predicted the major plot twists of the highly anticipated movie.

Who would have guessed that Venom was really Aunt May in disguise?

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