Who knew that love and a capella could be such a good combo? Who knew that you could co-term 13 times at Stanford and still not find love? In light of a recent holiday known as Valentine’s Day (you may have heard of it), Stanford’s a capella groups worked hard all across campus to make sure that the student body is in the know on these particular points.
During the love and music filled week, members of O-Tone brought new life to the phrase, “love knows no bounds.” They were sighted traversing campus in a torrential downpour, ready to douse unsuspecting individuals with sweet East-Asian love songs. Men in red blazers known as the Mendicants were ordered about the campus with equally loving intentions and saucy serenades. Fortunately, a capella wasn’t the only musical manifestation of love on campus: Stanford students could reserve a Valentine’s Day Mariachi Serenade for their lover to be performed by Mariachi Cardenal de Stanford.
If you were not in the mood for love but still in the mood for a capella, Stanford students showed up to Toyon on Saturday evening to watch Mixed Company perform their annual “Love Sucks” show – where harmony after harmony was perfectly executed on songs that celebrated how much love can, frankly, suck, especially on a day like Valentine’s Day.
As the night began, it became clear that members of the a capella group had become curiously vampiric and admittedly thirsty. And much like water turning into blood, the plot thickened throughout the night. Most notably, Kelsey, a young freshman in the group, was revealed to not be a freshman at all. In fact, she was the vampire who started it ALL. In her emotional and guilty confession, she exclaims, “I co-termed 13 times in the hopes of finding a rich Stanford hubby!” Spoiler: she was not successful and love still sucks.
Fortunately, Mixed Company’s performance did not suck. The love that the group put into creating the show, while most certainly a time-sucking endeavor, paid off in nearly flawless fashion. From flyers to complex lighting to an entire performance hall peppered with personalized hearts, the show screamed professionalism beyond just the sound of emotionally provocative songs.
When asked about how her favorite pieces of putting together the show, sophomore Alexa Thomson had a clear answer. Her favorites were “definitely the Maroon 5 Medley and the mashup of ‘Rockabye’ by Clean Bandit and ‘The Fire’ by Bishop Briggs.”
“These songs were the finale and the encore, for good reason,” she said. “Between the choreo, the amazing arrangements, the switching soloists and everything else, those songs were the hardest to execute but ended up being big crowd pleasers and were a really fun way to end the show. I also love ‘I Miss You’ just because it’s so sweet and heartbreaking and puts you in a trance with so many feels.”
For Mixed Company, the performance was not only a chance to commiserate the hopelessness of a failed love lives but also a platform to fire shots at other a capella groups and share some SPOTbites. (This is the vampire version of SPOTlights, the Stanford tradition of introducing yourself in a life story). Last but not least, the performance promoted Mixed Company’s new album “All Things Go” that dropped this past week on Spotify. (Check it out!) The crowd fan-girled at every introduction, downloaded the album – hungry for more -and marveled at the hard work put in by their friends. The night featured beating music and the beating hearts of an audience who could share in the struggles of love through laughter and song.
This article has been corrected to accurately reflect the name of Mixed Company’s new album and Alexa Thomson’s quote. The Daily regrets these errors.
Contact Faith Koh at faithkoh ‘at’ stanford.edu.