This last weekend I attended a local barbershop chorus show put on by the Anacortes Anochords (http://www.anochords.org) . The guest quartets were the 2005 and 2006 international champs, Realtime (http://www.realtimequartet.com) and Vocal Spectrum (http://www.vocalspectrum.com), respectively.

I know when most people think of a barbershop quartet , they think of 4 guys in straw hats and red-and-white pinstripe suits. Well, the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) to which all quartets and choruses are members of, is slowly changing. There are more younger members now than ever, the quality of singing is at an all time high, and the look is changing to loose fitting suits in place of the pinstripes.

Back to the show. It was very good. I mainly went to hear Vocal Spectrum since I had seen Realtime several times. While I felt that Vocal Spectrum didn't not perform as well as I thought they would, they still did a great job. They did a couple of great jazz charts, "As Long As I'm Singin' " and "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book. They closed with "Good Vibrations" which featured their tenor, Tim Waurick, on some very high singing. It was probably my favorite song of the night!

Realtime did an awesome job and performed a couple of songs I had not yet heard live (Come On, Get Happy being one). Check these guys out if you haven't yet...they have their sound so tight and refined that it's nothing like you've ever heard. They are definitely one of the best vocal quartets in the world.

The Anochords had a fun set for the 2nd half of the show. The theme was "The Great Race" and there were 2 guys in big model cars racing around the stage (a "good" guy and a "bad" guy). The songs reflected the race and the location (by the beach).

The show was well worth the $15 ticket and the friend I brought loved it so that was a bonus (you never know how someone will react to a barbershop show). I will definitely be going again next year.