Do it, Rockapella!

I was supposed to see Rockapella in 2009. I had tickets to see their Christmas show on campus in grad school, but that performance was snowed out, and I wasn't able to attend the make-up date.

The flyer still hung in my room the entire academic year.
I was looking up ticket information for another show when I saw that Rockapella was going to be in Memphis. To say my heart swelled with all the love and hope in the world would be an understatement. Then I saw the date: August 25th. The same date as a charity event I had been planning on attending for a month and a half. Cue deflation. Oh well.

But those Rockapella boys kept nagging at me. I looked at the time of my charity event, and realized it started thirty minutes earlier than I initially thought… and the Rockapella show started an hour later than I had assumed it would. Which meant I could make an appearance at the charity event, duck out early, and hit up Rockapella!

If I could get a ticket…
See, I figured this out the day before the show, so I wasn't surprised that it was sold out. "But I can put you on the waiting list," the employee told me. I gave her my information and said I wanted one ticket. "Hold please." So I held, assuming she was laughing with her coworkers about this lady who wanted to see Rockapella all by her lonesome.

She came back on the line and said "I have an option for you - there's a space in the back row; it's a handicapped space, but we can put a chair there for you." I said Yesyesyes and bought the ticket before she could take it back. Then I hung up and laughed hysterically at what I had just done.

I was attending a charity auction for handicapped adults; I was going to leave early to take a handicapped spot at a concert.


Yes, they misspelled the group's name on the ticket. Poor boys.
Even though I was in the last row, I had an awesome view of the stage. Since my chair wasn't hooked to a row of others, I pushed it back and had more leg room than I could have imagined. I watched people file in - mostly older whites.
       When the group came out, Scott Leonard made some small talk. "The heat here isn't so bad," he said, and everyone around me groaned. "I mean, I'm from Tampa, so it's hot, and a hurricane's coming, and the Republicans are coming!"

Silence.
My heart stopped and my eyes widened and I thought "Oh my god Scott, take it back take it back take it back!" I don't know everyone's political affiliation, of course, but if any audience was going to be majority Republican, I'd bet good money it would be an older crowd in Bartlett, Tennessee. "The Republicans are fine," he tried to backtrack, "but the hurricane?" He quickly pulled out his pitch pipe (not an innuendo) and got the show started.


Dressed so dapper!
Let me just say… see these guys if at all possible. They are fan-fucking-tastic. To have enough talent that you can stand on a stage using only your voices to make music… Hell, I have to crank up the volume in the car just to drown myself out when I sing along.


Strippin' down after intermission
They sang tons of oldies, some original tunes, and a medley of their commercial jingles. They told (non-political) jokes between songs and goofed around. Then it was time… "There's one more thing to do - you know what it is!"

A grand total of three of us yelled "Do it, Rockapella!" Scott stopped and said "Well, at least a few of you knew what was coming…" He explained things for the older crowd: "We used to do an afternoon TV show, and we sang this song every weekday for fifty-four years…"




Alright, now I'm inspired - who wants to play the board game with me?