With typical flair, the Mendicants opened their spring show “Harry Potter and the Deathly Mendicants” by running through the center aisle and handing roses to female audience members. Opening with a soulful version of “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” set the tone for a show full of finger-snapping, feel-good music.

“Our spring show was the capstone to our year as a group,” said Derek Ouyang ’13. “We’ve sung many on-campus and off-campus gigs, been on tour through Texas and recorded 13 tracks for our 25th album, so this show was an incredible way to wrap up all the work we have done and treat our friends to some fun music.”

The group sang six songs from their upcoming album, singing fresh and upbeat covers of contemporary songs like “Sunday Morning” and “Girl on TV”. They also performed Mendicants hits such as “Brown-Eyed Girl” and “Build Me Up, Buttercup” to the great delight of students and alumni alike.

In their 90-minute show, they traversed a number of genres and time periods, approaching all with suaveness and a good dose of melisma. The group also showed its spectrum of talents through showcases of beat-boxing, guitar and even a mouth-trumpet solo.

The loudest reaction, however, was to the Mendicants version of Cee-Lo Green’s “Fuck You.”

“As soon as we heard it, we pretty much knew that it was a perfect song for the Mendicants,” Ouyang said, explaining its appeal. “De Wei whipped up this awesome arrangement, and pretty soon we found that it was mutating into a variety of different forms. Matt Alcasid [the soloist] just absolutely rocks the song, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a classic for a long time, the modern heartbreak-revenge song.”

And the theme?

“The Harry Potter theme really came out of nowhere,” Ouyang said, “but we came up with three really hilarious skits that only marginally tied the show together. What was more important was that we had plenty of brand new songs to debut, mixed with some classics for the alumni to enjoy.”