Simply Having A Wonderful Pella Time

Rockapella at CalTech

Beckman Auditorium

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Pasadena, CA 

It's been a long time, folks.  A long time since I had last seen Rockapella, as well as a long time between this actual event and my posting of the blog.  I hope that, like my December Rockapella Time, it proves to be worth the wait.  And if not, I'm sorry. 

I took the day off on Friday so that I could bake for the guys and get pampered for the weekend's events.  When I found out that Ross and MJ would be in So Cal, I was happy that I would get to see them at the show.  Then it dawned on me that they might be able to help me out with the delivery of the goodies.  I had originally thought of going to CalTech earlier in the day to ask someone at the box office to deliver it to their green room, but Ross graciously agreed to help me out before the show.   I headed to the venue after church, got some help with the bags from my friend-in-law William, said a quick but excited hello to MJ, somehow delegated ticket distribution to my friends, and went backstage with Ross.  Mind you, I had not planned on the "going backstage with Ross" thing, but he tried to get me to see the guys anyway.  He's so good to me.  As he went into the dressing room to deliver the goodies, I stared at the backstage stuff: ooh, Santa hats!  A Grinch!  A pretty set!  I so, so wanted to take pics of stuff, but I was a good fan and didn't overstep my bounds.  The guys were still dressing up, so I couldn't see them before the show, but I hadn't planned on it anyway, and I was just happy that they were all present.  When one goes through a Rockapella Epic Fail, one tends to worry before December Pella So Cal shows.  I then met up with my friends in the audience.

It was an exciting group of spectators for me.  Along with my usual Pella Posse, consisting of Jeff, Wendy, Karla, Liz, Joe, Mox, Aura, Nicole and Kathie, I had 5. FIVE newbies:  co-worker buddy June with her daughter Emily; high school Friend Forever Lori and her hubby William, and church friend Jackie.  I love how I put all of this pressure on myself when in my heart I know that they'll love these guys.  And that they did.  

The PA announcer told us that the show would be starting shortly, and she sounded like we would soon be listening to an astronomy lecture.  It easy to feel that way in this auditorium.  The stage was pretty from the audience view, too. :)  There were two pretty red and white towers which were lit up from the inside.  I was seated in the second row, between newbie Jackie and my buddies Wendy and Jeff.  That was a happy surprise!  I was not pleased to see empty seats in front of us, though.  Hello, people with front row seats!  Where the heck are you?!  

I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day

Steven opened the show with the notes that we're used to hearing Kevin sing.  That was a little weird, but I got over it.  Nice chord during the lyrics "peace on Earth".  OK, they sing that phrase several times, but I do remember loving one particular chord that I hadn't heard in the song before.  

The guys were wearing gray suits with light gray shirts.  Scott was shiny shiny, and Geo was red-shoeless.  Scott announced that he was the Ghost of Christmas Fabulous.  

Hope We Hold

Scott said that last night they were in New Jersey, so this is a like a midnight show for them.  I smiled, thinking, "I'm really happy that they made it out here today."  Scott said that everyone here is so nice that "even the 7-Eleven is, like, pleasant!"  California has hit Scott with his use of "like".  :)

They demonstrated their individual voices with a roll-up of "Nuthin' But".  I think that they need to conjure up a special Holiday roll-up for these shows.  He and "the girls" could say "then the angels sing".  Yeah, they can use that.  Yeah, I would laugh loudly if they did.  

Dreidel

Scott won't do the Dreidel dance.

Silver Bells

Scott's tail is making me crazy, and not in a good way.  (The chord from his earpiece/monitor was hanging out of the back of his suit, and it was not connected to anything).  Scott stops music with his butt.  Geo is so cute not knowing the correct steps.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Angela, I think of you every single time they sing this song, even when I'm listening to the CD.  When they sing the last "Deck the halls with boughs of holly", Scott throws a right cross punch at John's face.  I don't think that's the type of "deck" the lyricist meant, but it was funny.  Scott's whistle was a little tamer than usual, but his whistle out-whistles everyone nonetheless.

Oh, those tower things are like the North Pole!  Or two North Poles.

Glow Worm

John LEAPT to the front of the stage to start his dance, and scared the people in front of him....as well as the people over in our section, worried about possible injury.  

Little Mary Snowflake

I swear that Scott gave a butt shot to me and Wendy on purpose.  I mean, HELLO, Scott's butt in the shiny, shiny pants!  How can I not look there?  Ahem.  Did Scott smile at Karla?  I think that he did in the first verse.  Whatevs.  Steven smiled at me TWICE during this song.

Scott said that they found Steven singing at Walt Disney World for "The Lion King", although I think that he would be perfect as Aladdin.  Then Scott called SD a "diamond in the rough", and I was, like, "Dude!  He IS Aladdin!"  No, I did not say that out loud, but Wendy and I gave each other knowing looks.  

Scott then said that Steven had to learn a whole bunch of new songs, and then he had to learn a bunch of holiday songs, so they decided to do something brand new for all of them...which "could be really brand new awful."  

Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime

This is the Paul McCartney song, with Steven in the lead.  I liked hearing the interesting chords leading up to the scat section.  

Scott asked the audience if anyone had watched "Rudolph" on TV the previous week.  YES!  And I thought of him the whole time!  It wasn't just you and that guy over on that side of the audience.  Scott said that he consults Rudolph.com for the daily news, which "doesn't change that much, really."

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

George sang to me!  HI!!!  John totally cracked me up with his buck teeth during the breakdown.  

John announced that no, he was not done with his Christmas shopping.  I was shocked.  He's usually totally done and bragging about it by this time.  Like me.  But, like me this year, he wasn't done.  His family was doing a theme this year of "Connection".  So he invited us to call someone on the phone for the next song.  I was too busy writing all of this down to call anyone.  

Merry Christmas, Darling

I can see Scott's friendship bracelet.  I bet that's from his daughter.

Jeff clapped his hand quickly on his leg afterward.  I don't know why I noticed that enough to write it down, but there you go.  Scott called JT "The Yukon Cornelius of Spit".  John calls Scott "Spaghetti Legs Malone".  John said that their songs are arranged by Scott, who knows exactly who they are vocally.  When they first get a song, John looks at the chords and thinks, "This man is crazy! but he writes it just for us and it's amazing."  Applause, Mr. Leonard, applause.

This Christmas Day  

This sounded like it was in a lower key.  Nice low "You", George!  The guys were not liking Scott's butt getting closer to them as he "makes new friends", except for Steven, who gave him a fist pound once Scott turned toward him properly.  

Christmas, Don't Be Late

Scott: "Ready, John?"  John (whispers):  "Bring it!"  Scott:  "Steve?  Steve?  STEVEN!"  Well, it's nice that the new guy's name still works with the intro, Karla pointed out later.  :)  Jeff interrupted his drum solo by telling us that his first apartment was in South Pasadena.  The guys returned from the drum break with "Gimme gimme gimme that thing".  I like how Steven had a tousled look because he was the late one.  Scott wants a Justin Bieber DVD.

INTERMISSION

I said hi to all of my peeps, making sure that they were enjoying the show so far.  Well, they were all smiling, so I was happy.  Nicole, Karla and I discussed the fact that some chords were sounding strange, most likely because the sound system wasn't at the right levels and we were missing some notes.  

Christmahanukwanzaakoliday

Yay!!!  This is the new song that Scott previewed for people on his mailing list last year, with Scott-only vocals.  I love this song, and I enjoy the audience participation.  Scott: "Castrati!" (audience silence)  "Just me, then."  Wheeee!

Jingle Bell Rock/Ukrainian Carol

"Ho!  Get your dance on!"  I'm loving the rhythm section during the megaphone portion.  Steven turned on the siren during the applause.

Christmas Without You

Scott gets dizzy when doing pirouettes.  He has a lot of funny moves with the mic stand, like he's incompetent or drunk or both.  

Happy Kwanzaa

Habari gani, what's the news?  Lion King in the house!  

Steven used to watch Carmen SanDiego and feels like he's Mark Wahlberg in "Rock Star".  He asked us to give it up for the guys, who stuck their heads out from behind the curtain.  Cute.  The guys had gone to Finland earlier in the year, and saw Santa's original workshop in Lapland.  But they wanted to see the new workshop.  Steven:  "I want to see where my Millenium Falcon was built!"  So they went to the North Pole and walked into Santa's office.  Santa said, "Rockapella!  Huge fan!"  Steven:  "Who knew?"  Santa told them that JT's really good with that beatboxing, but used to drive his parents crazy.  As the guys toured the workshop, Steven wandered around and got to see the Naughty And Nice List.  One of the people in the audience was on that list.

So Ross brought Chloe up to the stage, who had a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face the entire time, even as she sang along with Santa Claus is Comin' To Town.  She wants purple roller skates.  Scott asked Steven, "Which list was she on?"  Steven:  "The nice one, of course!"  Awwww.  Scott sang, "He knows when you've been bad or bad".  Jeff walked onto the stage dressed as Santa.  Chloe pretty much didn't notice him because her eyes were wide open at everything else.  He even followed Ross and Chloe as Chloe was returned to her seat.

George said, "As you may know, I like to sing...like a woman." He led us all in "Silent Night".  Our section sounded especially beautiful because we had Linda, Kathie and me in it.  :)

Grinch

George and Jeff were in Santa hats, and then all of them were wearing them!  Well, that explains the Santa hats backstage, which I had completely forgotten that I'd seen.  Then they brought out the plush Grinch that I saw, which was propped up on a mic stand.  I like how the tenors stretch out their individual mic stands during "39 1/2 foot pole".  No, it's not as lewd as I might have just written.  Then they put duct tape on the Grinch's mouth and around his hands and yelled lyrics at it.  I giggled uncontrollably.  Wendy rubbed her cheeks afterward, she had laughed so much.  My cheeks hurt, too. Scott:  "That Grinch is too short."

Scott:  "This is a talented audience!"  George: "And they were in harmony...in any key."

Christmas Without You

We needed to get depressed after all of that craziness.  I love this song, though.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

They had projections showing of the guys as kids, and each guy raised his hand as his picture was being shown.  Scott had really thick glasses.  Steven wore a Yoda shirt (wow, he's young).  John's pictures were all blurry.  Most of them (save Steven) had some bell bottoms going on.  LOVE it.

Angels We Have Heard On High

This is Wendy's favorite song, so I was very happy for her.

ENCORE

Carmen SanDiego, which somehow transformed into Billie Jean.

Scott: "You mean Santa's the one".  Then: "Where were we in this song?"  "I forgot what key."  OK, I now need to hear a full arrangement of that.

Hold Out for Christmas (off mic)

I'm always amazed at how strong their voices are when they sing off-mic.  You could clearly hear them throughout the theater.  Beautiful.

Jackie enjoyed the show and was happy to finally see them.  PUSHED.

Lori and William were very entertained and bought a CD.  PUSHED.

June told me that she loved the show and is going to buy tickets for their next show, and is going to invite other people to see it, too.  PUSHED.  :)

I did my job for the year, yes?

MEET AND GREET

The guys lined up behind an empty concession stands to sign stuff.  I had purchased a "Bang!" CD upon the Bro's request, and also bought Scott's sheet music for "Hold Out for Christmas".  When I approached Scott, I handed him the CD and said, "This is for my brother, Ryan."  Scott made sure to write down the Bro's name.  Then I said, "And this is for my Sherry, Sherry."  I was too busy talking to realize that Scott wrote "For my Sherry, Love Scott".  Delayed SWOOOON! when I saw it later while getting into my car.

I honestly can't remember what I said to the guys, and totally forgot to introduce them to Lori.  I was just so happy to see them after such a long drought that I think I babbled about whatever most of the time.  John thanked me for the cookies, and Steven realized who I was and thanked me.  APPARENTLY, I nailed it and made his favorite for him.  Yay, me!  A bunch of us gals took a picture with the guys, and William, having held all of our purses, insisted that I take a picture of him with the purses and the guys, too.  So here it is, because I just love it too much not to share.

William and The Pella

I tried to get Scott to join the Amazing Cozumel Race as a shore excursion from the upcoming cruise, but he has never even seen the actual Amazing Race.  I told him that I was really excited and asked if he was.  He said, "I wasn't, but I am now!"  He's so darn cute.

We decided to let the guys speak to other people, so we walked to our cars.  As we passed by the stage door, I heard Scott behind me, shouting out my name.  "SHERRY!"  (Sigh!  He's saying my name!  Loudly!)  I turned around and said, "Yes, sir?"  Scott:  "Thank you so much for the cookies."  We then talked to him some more for quite awhile.  Karla told him that he is no longer allowed to sing about injuries, because his rap during the old "Happy Holiday" mentions a fall from a roof during Christmas.  He also once fell on ice on a sidewalk in New York, messing up his shoulder before a show.  This was after he wrote "This Christmas Day", wherein he sings "having slipped up on the street".  Scott said that he doesn't remember the rap because he hasn't heard the song in a long time.  He also didn't remember actually falling from the roof because he blacked out.  Karla told him that she noticed that he's holding his microphone more naturally, now that his wrist is healing.  I kept cringing, thinking about that day.  Then Jenn frightened him by inviting him over to her cruise cabin for chocolate and champagne.  I tried to tell her not to scare him off of the boat, but we'll see how that turns out.  When the other guys finally started to pack up, we let Scott go and told him we'd see him the next day.

That's when we went to my car and I finally saw what he wrote on my sheet music.   AAAAAHHHH!

After dropping off Nicole to her car, Karla and I drove back to my house.  I finished packing while Karla entertained me with stories before we got some sleep for our morning flight.  

Good night, all!

Love,

Scott's Sherry :)