It seemed particularly fitting to those of us who had hosted Fundamentally Sound, an acappella group from the University of Wisconsin, that the all-male performers chose “brotherhood” as the theme of their competitive set for the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Midwest Tournament.
The young men recently completed a low-budget tour that included home stays, car trips, packed lunches and couch naps. The group’s tight bond, laser focus, and transcendent kindness became increasingly clear to lucky providers of the homes, lunches and couches, like us. They have each other backs as they take aim at the front of the ICCA field.
We joined a big group of F-S supporters Saturday night at the University of Chicago for the ICCA Midwest Regional. Our son Vinnie enjoyed the devoted support of no less than four aunts, three cousins, an uncle, father, mother and three siblings.
We planted ourselves front row and thoroughly enjoyed the show. All eight groups that performed before Fundamentally Sound impressed us with their unique styles and enviable passion and several of the soloists really blew us away.
F-S took the stage last and put together a polished set that included difficult tempo and key changes and traced the arc of fraternal bonds. If you can trust the potentially biased view of a camera toting mom, they put together the best and most challenging set of the night.
Eventually, following a nerve-wracking award ceremony, we learned that the judges agreed. Fundamentally Sound won the competition and will travel to the ICCA Midwest Semi-Final on Saturday, April 5 at Illinois State University.
Congratulations to all of the great acappella teams that competed Saturday night, especially Fundamentally Sound, some of the nicest men we know.
Here’s a clip Molly shot of the winning set, enhanced by a total eclipse of my sister Jenny’s head. Also, for your added entertainment value, you can enjoy the stern look I received from her, Katherine and my niece Olivia for the clicking sound my camera was making. All in the name of Aca-archiving, man!
As another FS mom and fellow blogger without a camera that can do pictures in this kind of setting any justice, I greatly appreciate the wonderfully-written recap of Saturday night and the fantastic pictures that captured their performance and well-deserved win. And the video made me smile and cheer all over again. We were also lucky enough to host these fantastic guys during their whirlwind winter tour and I would do it again in a heartbeat. “Transcendent kindness” with a “tight bond” is the perfect description of this group of young men, although I would also add “and very healthy appetites” to it. I hope we get a chance to meet you and your crew in April. We will be heading back to Illinois with Luke’s three siblings and (probably) girlfriend to cheer them on in the semi-finals. Can’t wait!
Thanks Kim. Clearly the transcendent kindness is hereditary. We’ll see you in Bloomington! What fun!