(all ICVs dress up in –diaphanous– poodle skirts with ribbons in their hair, and we swing-dance around while singing, girls pairing up with girls around me as I work the mic stand)

Barbershop Quartet / 50s & 60s Sock-hop

  1. “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis
  2. “I Smile” by Kirk Franklin
  3. “School Days” by Chuck Berry
  4. “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes
  5. “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding -Top Gun OST
  6. “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” by Pentatonix
  7. “Such a Night” by Elvis Presley –3000 Miles to Graceland OST (and Auz dresses like Elvis, cape and greased-hair and all)
  8. “Dream Lover” by Dion -from the Hot Shots! OST
  9. “Uptown Girl” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
  10. “Who Put the Bomp” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

(at some point during this concert, the ICVs switch to being in skin-tight diaphanous Uncle Sam outfits; blue spandex pants, suspenders over red-and-white striped long-sleeve shirts, and those flat-topped straw-hats, etc.)

 

“Before we begin, my first barbershop-quartet music-genre exposure was a very unpleasant –forced– choir program during my youth while being kept in a gender-confused death-cult in the now-gone state of Texas; it was a poorly-executed vaudeville-like oddity that still makes no sense to me to this day.  Years later, during my 2nd deployment to Iraq, I formed a barbershop quartet of my own; that one was just likeminded warriors, no gender-confused costumes or face-paint, and only songs that resonated with us, all of us there by choice as off-duty musical volunteers.  This concert is my third go at performing –and finally really enjoying– this genre to its max, now with my own spin, no longer just copying the works of others.  I hope you… enjoy it, too.”

 

“Chariots of Fire (theme)” by Vangelis

“Though not thought of as something a barbershop quartet would sing, after hearing cadet Rush in my Corps of Cadets officer training squadron speak of just that, a few years later I, with my Iraq quartet of fellow Infantry Marines… was rehearsing it as our very first song.  We wouldn’t perform it, as chance would have it, but those men united by singing this song in this way… went on to become the first Violent Rebirth, my very first band once we survived and made it back home to the States.”

ICVs Amber ICV1 (blonde), Kim (redhead), and Nyria (black hair) perform it with Auz (to be distinctly contrasted alongside his brown hair), all four of them in a line facing the crowd.  They are wearing blue slacks/bottoms, white button-down dress-shirts, red suspenders, and ‘Panama straw skimmer’ hats.  *Auz’s is normal, while those 3 girl’s of his are wearing diaphanous ones.  He has black shiny shoes on, while the girls are barefoot.  His blue pants are ironed to form a crease down the front of each pant-leg, while their blue ‘bottoms’ are ‘Ellen-style’ short-shorts cut like cheekies to show off the underside curves of their perfect ass-cheeks.  His shirt is normal, while theirs show off their perfectly-toned feminine midriffs.  His hair is in a masculine ponytail tucked into the collar of his dress-shirt, while all of their heads of hair are amazingly braided and with ‘face-framing’ side-strands sexily left hanging down.

The four of them sing that instrumental; it is the wordless barbershop-quartet version starting off this concert.

 

“I Smile” by Kirk Franklin

This is VRII’s barbershop-quartet cover of this originally gospel-genre song –and, of course, without the ‘god’ lyric, as religion is not allowed in Heaven (Inisfree).

 

“School Days” by Chuck Berry

All 15 members of VRII take turns with the lyrics of their cover of this classic-rock hit.  This is barbershop-quartet fused with one of the first electric-guitar sounds.

 

“Be My Baby” by The Ronettes

The VRII barbershop-quartet is joined by clicking spoons, drums, maracas, and tambourines.

 

“Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding -Top Gun OST

VRII sings a much more upbeat version of this oldie, three ICVs plus Auz harmonizing the whole way through.

Clips overhead on the screen above/behind the band/stage shows ICVs sitting on Inisfree’s luxurious piers.

 

“Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” by Pentatonix

“I first sang this to my beloved, ‘my everything’, the High Queen you all know, Ambrosia LeMorte, …and I meant and poured out my heart to her with every note and word.”

 

“Such a Night” by Elvis Presley –3000 Miles to Graceland OST (and Auz dresses like Elvis, cape and greased-hair and all)

This song is perfect to be sung by a barbershop quartet!  It was ‘just asking for it’.  We just kept/added the horns and drums.

 

“Dream Lover” by Dion -from the Hot Shots! OST

“Another song perfectly suited to being performed by us in barbershop-quartet form, this one has a number of covers, some serious, some funny.”

Dreamy joins us for this one.

 

“Uptown Girl” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Barbershop-quartet… grunge-rock?  You bet!  VRII shows you how.

 

“Who Put the Bomp” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

What a classic sound to this cover by MFATGG, and so much fun to play and sing!  All the ICVs other than Amber ICV1, Kim, and Nyria do swing-dancing to this fast, wild beat, spinning and flipping each other all around us as we stand back in our first-song-of-the-show line-of-four.

We all take our hats off and shake them at the end, just like in the original/oldies quartets and vaudeville shows.

Finally, a good and great memory and experience in this genre to soften that original bad one!