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Cesareo Contreras

“The Sing-Off” stars fill DPAC with a cappella hits

Updated: Oct 2


(Photo by Cesareo Contreras)

Cesareo Contreras

Arts & Features Editor


“The Sing-O-” semifinalist The Filharmonic enamored a lively audience with its a cappella renditions of some top 40 hits in DPAC on Friday, Sept. 2.


In addition to being contestants on 2013’s fourth season of NBC’s a cappella voice competition “The Sing-O-,” the six-man crew is featured in 2015’s “Pitch Perfect 2.” Now on it’s first college tour, “The Get Up And Go Tour,” the young Filipino-American group is showcasing their vocal abilities all over the country.


From Blackstreet’s “No Diggity’ to Nick Jonas’ “Chains” to Bruno Mars’ “Treasure,” to Earth, Wind & Fire’s, “September,” the songs performed were a varied number of recent and classic pop hits.


Each member played their part in achieving the group’s desired harmonious tone and performance.


Joe Caigoy accompanied his beatboxing and harmonizing teammates by belting out some of the group’s highest and most powerfully charged notes, most of which were met with roaring applause and hollers.


Niko Del Rey, the group’s resident beatboxer, showed o- his vocal skills by emulating both instrumental sounds and machine-generated EDM beats.


VJ Rosales, a former contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” served as one of the team’s most prominent dancers, often leading the group in performing one of their signature dance moves, the body roll.


Trace Gaynor, Jules Cruz and Barry Fortgang not only harmonized, but they each showcased their vocal prowess through a number of the group’s solo performances.


The young group did more than just perform for the enthusiastic audience, they actively encouraged their participation.


At one point in the show, Gaynor invited audience members to follow along as he taught them a series of beatboxing mouth movements and sounds.


The exercise de-escalated fairly quickly, however, since the audience couldn’t keep up with Gaynor’s advanced beat work. They ended up just clapping at his performance instead.


Freshman Darisa Pilon was invited to be the group’s “sexy volunteer.” Sitting in a chair in the middle of the stage, Pilon watched as the six men began dancing and singing around her. Their song of choice was Mario Winans’ “I Don’t Wanna Know.”


“It was really cool to be up close to them because I saw Pitch Perfect, Pilon said. “I had no idea how to react. All I could do was laugh and smile. It was just a great experience over all.”


Toward the end of their performance, the group played their yet-to-be-released original track, “Get Up and Go” “exclusively,” according to Gaynor, for the FSU audience. There was only one stipulation – they had to sing along.


Sophomore Alex Davis said, “I thought it was great. I hadn’t heard about them much before, but now I love them.


Sophomore Kayla Chen said, “I really liked their performance. I’ll definitely check them out.”


Freshman Nicholas Vilamor said, “I absolutely loved it. I’m Filipino so it hit home for me. I was in my chair just dancing. These guys just hit the stage tonight and lit it up.”

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