ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A cappella music seems to have lost some popularity from its high note just a decade ago, amid the "Pitch Perfect" movies and “The Sing-Off” TV show.
Five-member vocal group Pentatonix won that show in 2011 and in 2017 played to a sold-out Allentown Fair grandstand audience of 10,500 who happily sat in pouring rain to hear them.
The group returned Saturday to an audience about three-quarters of that, and — this time on a lovely night — proved it wasn't just a one-note wonder.
There's still much to like about Pentatonix's music and performance.
The group put on an hour-and-37-minute concert of 13 full songs and five medleys of 70 (!) others that mostly ranged from nice and interesting to simply amazing.
In other words, there was something for pretty much everyone — almost all of it done well.
The group opened with a big-production version of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" and Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive" that were the expected a cappella (or at least Pentatonix's) versions.
The first medley strung together 1990s songs, and one of the most entertaining parts was remembering how good some of that maligned decade's music was, with some surprise selections such as C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," Eifel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)," Robin S.'s "Show Me Love" and Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting for Tonight."
That group of songs showed how integral singer Kirstin Maldonado's voice is to the mix (and how good it is). High-voiced Mitch Grassi also was very good.
They also added some simplistic dance moves to the mix, but accompanied only by member Kevin Olusola's beatboxing, the 17 songs in six minutes left some too short.
Singalongs and audience energy
Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence," sung starkly, was a big song in a big production that highlighted the group's vocal strengths, with layers of drama.
In a twist, Pentatonix did Billy Joel's normally upbeat and poppy "Uptown Girl" in a similar style, slow and stark, causing vocalist Scott Hoying to comment, "Ain't that the most dramatic version of that song you ever heard?"
A cover of Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal" was classic a cappella, showing Pentatonix's talent in that realm, as well.
A six-minute medley traced Pentatonix's 13-year history in nine songs — from its "Sing-Off" audition of "Telephone" that mashed-up Beyonce and Lady Gaga to its 2017 Grammy award-winning duet with Dolly Parton on her "Jolene," and was followed by a strong Christmas arrangement (Pentatonix does annual Christmas tours) of "Mary Did You Know?"
A cover of Radiohead's "Creep" was powerful, and Omi's 2012 poppy song "Cheerleader" again reminded of forgotten good music.
But a six-minute segment of Olusola's beatboxing while accompanying himself on cello (it was the only segment of the show that seemed to use background music) climaxing in "Kevin's Fifth" — a song incorporating Beethovan's Fifth Symphony — was interesting but not as entertaining.
Nor were audience sing-alongs of obvious songs such as Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" and the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme, or another including Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" and Queen's "We Will Rock You."
But the Allentown Fair crowd gleefully sang along, causing Grassi to remark, "It's so exciting ... thank you for your energy."
Simply amazing
The simply amazing medley was a seven-minute, 34-song (!) offering of Taylor Swift tunes (the groups didn't make reference to Swift's local ties, but did ask "Do you guys like Taylor Swift?").
"The Evolution of Taylor Swift," indeed, traced her career from her 2006 debut hit "Tim McGraw" through "Mean," "We Are Never Getting Back Together," "Blank Space," "Bad Blood" and a lot of lesser hits to the recent "Anti-Hero" and "Karma" and back again to "Our Song."
It was astonishing that the five singers could even remember the lyrical order of the medley, let alone sing it well. But the group did.
Pentatonix closed its set with a six-minute version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," a song made for acapella treatment — and for Grassi's high voice, which impressively approximated Queen's Freddy Mercury.
The group then returned for an encore of Elvis's "Can't Help Fallin in Love" around a single microphone (getting huge cheers from the crowd), then closed with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," another song made for a cappella, and especially for Grassi.
But perhaps Pentatonix's best came halfway through the set. It was "The Lucky Ones," the title song to the group's 2020 album of original material.
Not only was it strong material, but it allowed the group to shed the shackles of expectations and sing in their own styles — and showed Pentatonix has more to offer than just covers.
That could be one way to revive the popularity of a cappella music.
Archuleta the night's best
As good as Pentatonix was, opening act David Archuleta might have been better.
In a way-too-short eight-song, 28-minute set, Archuteta showed he still has the rich-tone voice that made him runner-up on "American Idol" 16 years (!) ago (he should have won — where's David Cook now?)
But now 33, he seems to have added stage confidence to his singing ability.
He opened with "I'm Yours," among recent singles he has released — singing this time in a high falsetto and holding long notes, even as he did routines with two dancers on stage.
And he occasionally did deep knee bends for emphasize his vocal investment.
Singing to recorded music, he did one of his early singles, "A Little Too Not Over You" that showcased that tonal quality.
"Sixteen years ago I was on this show, 'American Idol," he told the crowd, and reminisced that his first-ever tour took him through Allentown (he sold out the former Crocodile Rock Cafe in 2009.)
He introduced his recent single "Hell Together" by saying, "I went through a lot of changes in the past two years that I was going to get through," and his performance conveyed that pain.
It was a disappointment he didn't sing his newest single, "Rather Be Lonely," an equally devastating song.
Another new song, "OK, Alright" had a tropical beat, and he sang well on covers of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" (another song he said "meant a lot to me over the past few years") and One Direction's "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" (an underrated song, and Archuleta could easy have led a boy band.)
And he did a mashup of his single "Movin'" with "Expresso," the chart-topping hit by Sabrina Carpenter (Did he know she's a Lehigh Valley native?)
Archuleta closed his set with his 2009 debut chart-topper "Crush" — still a very good song and he still sang it well, and the audience sang along, too.
An indication of how good Archuleta was came during Pentatonix's set, when they brought him back out to perform Miley Cyrus's "The Climb" with Hoying for what they said will be a Tik Tok video.
Archuleta was easily the better voice.
