UB Glee Club Performs

Leather pants, a wall of booty shakers, energetic dance moves, and a group of UB students with musical talent that would impress even Lea Michele and Mark Salling.Moments before these performers took the stage, members of UB Glee put their hands together in a circle and shouted "one, two, three, Glee Rex!" as they waited backstage for the show to begin.

Excitement filled the Student Union Theatre last Sunday as students of the UB Glee Club showed off months of hard work for their second concert of the semester called, "Throw Back Attack."

The club members were nervous as they franticly rehearsed one last time, just an hour before the show. People looked stressed, notes were being sung off-tune, and the butterflies were fluttering inside the stomachs of the performers.

But as the crowd began to shuffle into the theatre and seats began to fill, the moods of the Glee Club performers shifted. Anxiety morphed into excitement as friends and family showed up to support the members and they became ready to put forth their best acts.

The show abandoned the tunes of contemporary pop kings and queens, taking audiences back to the old days of musical talent.

The group covered artists such as Michael Jackson, Michelle Branch, Destiny's Child, and Peggy Lee. The members received positive feedback from the audience, which showered performer after performer with applause.

Adam Sebag, a junior theatre major at SUNY Binghamton, attended the show with several friends from UB and was impressed by what he saw and heard.

"It's a night where you can see different genres of music by different types of people and different styles of singing," Sebag said. "I think it's good. There is a lot of talent here and it's exciting. In high school there were lots of acappella groups, so here to see a full Glee type of performance is interesting."

While performers looked confident on stage, backstage revealed a different story.

Costumes were being thrown on, limbs stretched, and voices warmed up. The Glee Club pulled out all the stops in order to ensure a pleased crowd.

The group opened with energy and unity, performing a dance to R. Kelly's song "Ignition," showing the crowd that UB Glee is a fun group of close friends, in addition to being talented performers.

Several duets and solos followed and the Glee women finished off the first half in leg warmers and '80s work out gear covering Human League's "Don't You Want Me."

Chad Gray, a junior chemical engineering major, shocked audiences and sent them into hysterics with his Elvis rendition of "A Little Less Conversation," wearing skin-tight leather pants."I just wanted to go all out on this number," Gray said. "I really like Glee and I just want to push it to the next level, and so if that means jumping way outside of my comfort zone I'm going to do it."

Apart from the occasional technical difficulties, like sound and audio feedback, the concert ran smoothly.

The club's president, Jenna Dunlay, a junior theatre major, was proud of the group's performance after months of preparation and hours of rehearsal.

"I'm very impressed with my group, I think that we've come a long way from the beginning," Dunlay said. "They jumped in and they owned it."

During the second half of the show, the Glee boys covered Shania Twain's "Man I Feel Like a Woman," which left the audience cheering them on and laughing in their seats.

For the final number, the entire club came together on stage wearing their Glee club 2011 T-shirts, topping off the night with a Michael Jackson medley.

The crowd was encouraged by the club members to get involved in the fun. Right after intermission the club hosted a booty shaking competition for random volunteers in the audience.

"We don't want people to just sit down for two hours and just listen. We want feedback, said Matt McHale, a senior math major and Glee Club member. "If we are doing funny songs we want [the audience] to laugh…We want them to get involved. We want them to have a good time, [just] as much as we do."

Wearing tight leather pants in front of a crowd would be scary for almost anyone. Fortunately for Gray, the audience's applause and hype helped ease his worries.

"The crowd was great, they really were very supportive," Gray said. "I just thought I was going to be nervous coming out but they just ate it up I suppose. I felt really comfortable after the first couple words I sang."

The Glee Club is now starting to prepare for its next concert, which will be held on Dec. 4.

"Now that this is over with, we get to take a step back and finally congratulate ourselves for doing a damn good job," Dunlay said.

Email: features@ubspectrum.com