I was in Olympia, WA last Saturday competing with one of my groups, 'Essence of Larynx,' at the Pacific North West Harmony Sweepstakes.  We took thirth (third place, but two groups tied for second, so we were actually fourth...).

In another blog I'll write about the reasons I have for entering competitions (and I do enter a lot).  But for now, a quick overview of my impressions of the regional competition, from a competitor's viewpoint.

I've sung in regional Harmony Sweepstakes competitions in San Francisco, LA, Denver, and Seattle, and finals in San Rafael.  Regionals all have their own flavor, based on producer tastes, group participation, venue, audience preferences, sound support, and dozens of other factors.

I was impressed with the groups in Washington (many of them being from Oregon).  Rezonate was the best example of the strengths of these groups: great variety in their set, great musicality, excellent presentation; the whole package was well thought out and well executed.  All the groups played to their strengths, and I feel like the audience was well entertained.

Strangers in Harmony formed very recently, and what they lacked in stage presentation (no slick choreography or schtick) they made up for in straight-ahead, sweet singing.  They tied with V-Chords, who put on a great show.

It seems like the groups have a lot of competition experience, collegiate and semi-pro level, and that they use the competitions to stretch themselves and to perfect a mini set of performance materials.  I applaud that.  They also seem to try to get better each year.

Chanteuse is a classy women's group.  A year ago they were watching the HS from the audience, and decided they wanted to participate.  They auditioned, got in, and represented themselves very well.  In addition to providing great variety to the show, both gender and musical, they were gracious 'hosts' as the only group from Olympia proper.

And not to forget the BaudBoys - all Microsoft employees, the official hosts and winners of the 2008 regional were great.  Friendly, musical nerds - what's not to like?

The whole operation seemed to be well-run.  Nice theater venue.  Seem to have loyal fans.

The biggest problem I had with the event was sound.  The monitor mix was absolutely retched.  I don't care what kind of performance you are doing - rock music, poetry reading, mime - a monitor mix like that is not acceptable.

I can't honestly assess the house sound, because the performers were not allowed to watch the show (silly when there were plenty of open seats, even if they were in the fourth balcony).  I go to these things to watch and learn, which is frankly hard to do watching the show on a television in the green room.

There are no subwoofers in the theater.  We listened to some of the groups during sound check, and while the sound was mostly clear and intelligible, it lacked depth with no low end.  To me, that just does not cut it for contemporary a cappella.  It's not that I want LOUD, it's that I want GOOD.  The fact that they were using the house sound at all was surprising to me - house sound systems rarely meet the needs of a good vocal concert.  Even with the house sound, it seemed like the sound tech had little understanding of contemporary a cappella.  The groups are simply too good to deserve to sound that mediocre.

I wish I had more observations on the show - I'm very curious, for example, how the audience reacted to each of the groups, but because we were tucked away in the basement I don't know.