When the Greysounds took the stage on Saturday night, November 22^nd, all dressed in green and black, the screams and hollers from the crowd were heard throughout all of the Andrew White Student Center. Friends and peers of the 13 members were there and their spirits were high.

The Greysounds, Loyola’s first co-ed a cappella group, is made up of two seniors, five juniors, four sophomores, and two first-years.  Between the nine songs the group sang, almost every member had a solo at some point in the show.  The group opened with the high-energy Neon Tree’s song “Animal,” which led right into “Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay” by Ottis Redding featuring solos by sophomore Natalya Pulaski and junior Caroline Basden. From the first two songs, the audience could tell just how much variety and flexibility the group has: they went from a song from the last 5 years to a song that came out in the ‘60s.

The group then went into “Your Smiling Face” by James Taylor, which featured a solo from senior Kevin Wolkoff.  The Greysounds then perfectly juxtaposed their version of Coldplay’s “Fix You” next to Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors.”  Junior and music director of the Greysounds, Lauren Currenti, had a solo in “Fix You” that left everyone in complete silence, awe and admiration for just how beautiful the song and their version was. The transition into the duo of Emily Neidle and Brandon Newby during “Mirrors” had everyone clapping along with the chorus in enthusiasm.

The Greysounds kept it interesting for the audience with two ‘surprise’ songs.  For me, these songs were the most highly anticipated and exciting of the whole night.  Walking back onto stage from a short intermission, soloist Chris Furino, a senior, broke out a blue foam visor, placed it on his head upside down, and started singing “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys. Being a kid of the 90’s and early 2000’s, seeing and hearing all 13 members perform the Backstreet Boys while wearing blue foam visors upside down was one of the most fun things I have seen in a while.

Slowing it down a little, the Greysounds then went into “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink and Nate Ruess.  Soloists Basden, Newby, and sophomore Becky Scullin let out all the right emotion and feeling for this song and its lyrics.  Showing everyone in the audience just how versatile the group and the members truly are, they then sang “Falling Slowly” from the movie and musical Once. Currenti and sophomore Mark Woodall blended and matched their voices and tones to create the perfect sound in their duet.

The final song was the second and last ‘surprise’ song.  The song was arranged by Currenti and Greysounds president Scullin.  Before the group began to sing, they introduced what they were about to do – the Four Chord Song – and the idea behind it to get the audience interested and excited. Lauren explained that almost every pop song within the last forty years consists of the same four chords, and that they were going to sing them with different popular songs layered over the chords.

What followed was a mash-up of over 20 pop songs from the past four decades.  Starting with “Don’t Stop Believin’” going to “Beautiful Soul” and “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” the mash-up was interrupted with a laugh between Currenti and Scullin during “Wrecking Ball” about hitting the correct note. They then went into a mini Disney mash up of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Part Of Your World” and ended with “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The audience was in awe of the song, and how gracefully the group moved from one song to the next after just a few seconds.  Freshman Andrew Kutt, the beat boxer behind all the Greysounds songs, held his own through the whole performance never running out of breath, and adding an extra special element to each song the group sang. The audience erupted into applause and a standing ovation after the 5-minute pop music marathon.

The Greysounds know their way through years and years of good pop music, and they know how to do it, and do it well.