Our most recent musical venture was for the United Parish of Upton in Upton, Massachusetts. Arriving at the Church on this beautiful Saturday afternoon was like living a scene from a movie: a sleepy New England town, at the peak of fall foliage season, ready to tuck in for some good old a cappella music!

Although we brought our sound system and microphones for this show, once we explored the church hall and warmed up, we realized that we could better utilize the intimate space by using a few area mics instead of individual mics. The space had the kind of rich ring to it that can really enhance a group’s blend. We finished setting up and spent some downtime in the church lounge as Joe serenaded us on the piano with his Latin-jazz renditions of “Take On Me” and “Piano Man.”

When 8:00 rolled around, we hit the ground running (Scott will correct me here and say we hit the ground singing). The church hall had filled up nicely with lots of friendly faces and their energy was fantastic. An excited, lively crowd is all any musician can hope for, and Upton delivered! In between songs, we shared stories and introductions and a good time was had by all. The folks in Upton even learned how Stu got his name and very eagerly offered up some great new suggestion! My vote is for Spike (thank you gentleman in the third pew).

Nick ended the show belting out his best Gnarls Barkley with “Crazy,” and when the crowd called for an encore, Stu crooned them with Michael Buble’s “Home.” During intermission and after the show, we had a chance to chat with many of members of the audience, which was a real treat. I think we had as much fun as the people of Upton did at this show and we look forward to returning!

Take care,
Josh (the original)

We have finally caught up on enough sleep to tell you about our trip to Las Vegas. It has been a few days since we touched back down at a chilly Logan Airport, but the warmth of the Strip and complimentary gin and tonics (virgin, I assure you) still persists.

Although the purpose of our trip was to perform at the Las Vegas A Cappella Summit, we decided to stretch it into an extra-long weekend of casino-hopping and sleep deprivation. We all had such a desire to see the lights of Las Vegas from the air that we first flew past it on Thursday night on our way to Los Angeles. Once we had satisfied that hunger, we got back on a plane and flew into Vegas, arriving just after midnight local time. Although that put us at about 3am Boston time, we couldn’t resist the urge to take a drive down the famed Las Vegas Strip to see the display. This was the first trip to Vegas for half of Overboard, so we had to go out and start our trip off right. Did you know they don’t put clocks in casinos? Needless to say the sun was long up in Boston by the time we hit the sack….

We spent Friday enjoying the MGM Grand pool during the day and the nearby casinos at night, but with the show on Saturday, we made sure to go easy on our voices and get a good amount of rest. The weather was fantastic, although we never experienced that ‘dry heat’ everyone talks about. Coming from Boston in October, I certainly can’t complain about 75 and sunny.

On Saturday, we drove out of the city limits and to the Desert Oasis High School, which pretty much was on the edge of a desert, as the name would suggest. There were incredible views of the surrounding mountains out there and we got in some good photos for the website. We went into the school where several seminars and master classes were being held by members of the House Jacks and other prominent a cappella figures. Those guys are incredible! When it came time for us to go on, we sang an upbeat and energetic set to a crowd of screaming students who seemed to know all the words to our tunes. We started off with Matchbox 20’s “How Far We’ve Come” followed by Nick singing a beautiful version of “Gravity” by Sarah Bareilles which was definitely a crowd favorite. We ended the set by premiering a trio of songs from our upcoming album, but you’ll have to stay tuned to learn more about that!

We had a great time at the A Cappella Summit, especially since it’s always fantastic to see kids really excited about this style of music.

To finish our Vegas experience, we toured around some more great casinos and restaurants and slept as little as possible. Sunday was spent visiting Red Rock Canyon and the Hoover Dam, both of which were amazing. The Hoover Dam is especially cool in that you can be in Arizona and Nevada at the same time. Very neat for someone who has never been to either state! Interesting fact: if you sing a D sharp in Arizona, it is an E flat in Nevada. Something to do with the time zones, I think…

Until next time,
Josh

As part of our work with Right Tune Only (see our “BidCow” blog), we attended the kickoff meeting for the company’s marketing initiative. The meeting was held on the 2nd floor of the Basketball Hall of Fame, basically giving us free reign of the entire floor… it was awesome! We perused the exhibits for a while, did our presentation for the meeting, ate some delicious food (mmm, molten chocolate lava cake…) and performed for the other folks at the meeting. A big thanks to the Right Tune Only team for hosting us and having sound gear set-up and waiting for us!

We topped the night off with a few songs from our new album (coming soon… we can’t wait!) performed at Center Court in the Hall of Fame – kinda surreal!

~Overboard

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the Newburyport Fire Department. No emergency here, folks! They had come to provide us with a generator to power our sound system. It wasn’t long before our audience arrived with their lawn chairs and plenty of bug spray. After such a rainy summer, the mosquitoes were fierce but it didn’t stop us from putting on a great show! Thanks everyone who came out!

~Overboard

We were welcomed into Dave’s house with open arms and had the chance to meet his family, including Astro, the family dog, before heading off to the gig. Longmeadow sits along the Connecticut River and the Pioneer Valley Yacht Club is a cozy setting with great views. We set-up our equipment on the club patio, applied a heavy coating of bug spray and waited for the fun to begin!

As the sun set over the horizon, we let the tunes flow. We had a great audience, some of whom were so lively that they even started dancing in the aisles. Stu got yet another pseudo nickname, Wolf, which he has taken to quite readily! We even had the chance to make-up a rendition of “Lion Sleeps Tonight” on the spot. Who knew Josh knew all the lyrics?

Altogether, it was a great night. We had a chance to meet so many wonderful people. We owe Dave a lot of thanks for giving us the opportunity to do such a great gig. We are going to miss you when you head off to school in a couple weeks, buddy!

~Overboard

After the gig, we went down the street to Boston Beer Works to celebrate Scott’s 28th birthday with a special guest appearance by Scott’s parents! By the end of dinner, we were thrilled to give Scott his present, an electronic drum kit… as if vocal percussion wasn’t enough for this guy! Anyway, we are really happy that we could celebrate with him and his family! Happy Birthday Scott!!

~Overboard

We performed for a beautiful dinner/reception organized by the local event planners at Corinthian Events who took good care of us throughout the evening. We’d especially like to take a moment to appreciate the man in the audience who wowed us with his encyclopedic knowledge of our set. This guy knew EVERYTHING about every song we sang: title, lyrics, original artist, record label, bass player’s favorite color… it was impressive!

While most of us have spent some time at the MFA before, being there in the dark after hours was especially exciting!

~Overboard

~Overboard

We finished up our annual YH extravaganza yesterday with a great day of street performing on the boardwalk.  We started early and continued until after the spectacular fireworks display.  Of course, we took some breaks, during which we must have eaten close to 100 25-cent hot dogs.  It was awesome.  Thanks, Newburyport, for another great summer… see you next year!

~Overboard

After our performance, we enjoyed an extended cruise back from the Charlestown Navy Yard to Rowe’s Wharf (and devoured what was left of that cheese plate…). It was definitely a great way to experience Boston!

~Overboard