The world was introduced to Pentatonix in 2011 during the third season of The Sing Off, a now-defunct tournament-style a cappella group contest show. With its incredible covers and renowned mashups, Pentatonix stole the show and wowed the nation. While some groups would feature upwards of 20 members in their arrangements of singing mixed with vocal instrumentation, Pentatonix only had five members and sounded better than anything the larger groups could throw together. In 2012, following Pentatonix’s nationwide success, the movie Pitch Perfect was released. That was the height of the brief era of a cappella fever; being in an a cappella group then was like owning a Beanie Baby covered in jelly bands and pogs — everyone and their auntie was doing it.
After winning The Sing Off, Pentatonix was awarded a recording contract and has been touring the country ever since, making albums and keeping its distance from musical instruments. And though the high and beautiful wave of a cappella ended back in 2014, if you listen to Pentatonix with the right set of ears, you can hear the high-water mark, the place where the pop-inspired mashups finally lost their luster and rolled back into the sea.
At its show last night at the Mid Florida Credit Amphitheater Union in Tampa, Pentatonix saw British singer-songwriter Calum Scott open along with indie-pop rock band Echosmith. The latter is made up of three siblings and is fairly easy to forget until you hear the song “Cool Kids” and think, “Oh right, that’s that song I know them for.” Surprisingly, hearing that song jogged my memory to the fact that this was the third time I had seen Echosmith live, and it was the last song in its set.
Pentatonix, however, was phenomenal. The band first appeared to us silhouetted behind a big white sheet, which was dropped to reveal the band and its glittery, red-accented outfits (by the way, do you use the word "band" for a cappella groups?). It was a far cry from the understated look Pentatonix sported on The Sing Off, for which members wore humble flannels and suit jackets with jeans. Besides the more corporate look and kind of cheesy boy band choreography, Pentatonix was pretty much the same group that the world got to know on NBC. The most glaring difference between them then to them now was the absence of original vocal bassist, Avi Kaplan. Seeing as Avi left the group nearly a year ago to start a solo folk project, it doesn’t seem like his style would match the band’s current one without creating a few new seams in the relationship.
For a band in the unique position of being known for covers and mashups, Pentatonix seemingly struggles in finding an identity in that lane. I’d imagine The Sing Off was unprofitable for NBC since it was probably very expensive to pay royalties for all the songs being covered. Pentatonix has also been using its Sony-funded studio time to do five full studio releases. Two were Christmas albums, but all of them except PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. I featured a good deal of original songs.
Pentatonix began Thursday's concert with mostly original songs, which rendered most of the audience motionless. Not unimpressive, mind you, but not the dancing you would see at a rock or EDM show. The covers and mashups Pentatonix did got a lot more response from the audience, but there was still minimal dancing and mostly sitting and nodding. I think this reaction stems from two places: For starters, it's hard to dance to a cappella, and the crowd was the weirdest mix of demographics I’ve seen at a show to date. Children with their parents. Parent-age people who either hired a babysitter or still have their weekends. Millennials, old people, people wearing flannel, theater kids, and whatever I am (I look like the aforementioned Avi Kaplan and Post Malone mixed together). It was a mix that wouldn’t work many places other than an a cappella show, but everyone was positive and smiling wide.
Among Pentonix's covers was a killer remix of “Havana” by Camila Cabello, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, and “Imagine” by John Lennon. Pentatonix also performed some of its classic mashups including an "Evolution of Rihanna" medley, a Daft Punk mashup, a combination of “Despacito” and “Shape Of You.” A mix of “Stay” by Alessia Cara and Zedd with the song “The Middle” by Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey was also impressive.
Pentatonix is a three-time Grammy winner for its work, but its hardware is mostly in the already-thin Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella category. Seeing how this year marks seven years for it as a group, Pentatonix let its renowned beatboxer Kevin Olusola perform his signature "beatboxing while playing cello" move. The feat was significant because when Pentatonix founders Kevin, Kirsten, and Mitch were forming the group to audition for The Sing Off, they didn’t know a single beatboxer. So they went to YouTube and typed in “beatboxer,” and Kevin playing cello while beatboxing was the first result. So they contacted him and asked him to join their group, sight unseen. The rest is history.
