[Music] PTX Live

Last night I went to my first live gig of the year, at the Institute in Birmingham. I went to see Pentatonix, who are an a capella vocal group that I discovered on Youtube towards the end of last year. About a month ago I saw on Facebook that one of my friends from St Andrews was attending their gig in Glasgow, and wondered if they were playing near me. They were, and I was lucky enough to get a ticket (which wasn't too expensive either). I'm so glad I did, because it was amazing.

Getting artsy with my camera. The stage was simple, and didn't detract from the music (Credit: David Brown)

It was a fairly short gig, maybe an hour and a half or so at the most. But there were no support acts, just Pentatonix, and they were singing pretty much non-stop. So great value for money considering the price of the ticket. I lost track of how many songs they did, but it was a decent mix of stuff from their first two albums, arrangements that they performed as part of 'The Sing-Off' TV talent show in the USA (which is where they got their break), and some new singles that I hadn't heard before. There were also some individual performances from Avi (the bass), who showed off his overtone singing ability, and Kevin (the beatboxer), who gave us a cool cello-beatbox original composition.

What struck me was how genuinely excited, happy, and pleased they were to be performing. It wasn't super slick, but it wasn't messy either. They just wanted to interact with the crowd a bit, and enjoy the atmosphere. I can't blame them either - the crowd were nuts, and barely let them get a word in between songs! It really seemed like they weren't expecting such a warm reception, and their reaction to it made me like them even more. Then they picked a member of the audience and got her up on stage to sing to, which was hilarious.

The five members of Pentatonix. L to R: Avi, Kirstie, Scott, Mitch, and Kevin. (Credit: David Brown)

Obviously they sounded a little different live to their recordings, but who doesn't? I did think that the bass was a little loud at times, and could have done with more Kirstie at times as well - she seemed to get lost a little, or maybe her voice was just blending really well. There was also one song (Aha) where they seemed to lose a little bit of steam and slow down, mainly due to the lead for that song (Mitch as it happens) milking it a bit. But there weren't really any moments where I thought they were out of tune, and the gorgeous harmonies that attracted me to their music were even better live. 

To sum up? It was a great gig, and I'm so glad that I went.

(All photos credit: David Brown)

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