And boom goes the dynamite, lost one of my Final Four picks in the first round yesterday. This is actually getting to be kind of awesome in a horror show way. Enough about March Madness, it’s time for the show.

I mentioned that Jess and I got to partake in one of our favorite traditions on Thursday night, visiting Pepperdine’s Songfest. I don’t remember a specific number, but this is approximately the seventh consecutive year we’ve gone out there for the show. Our friend Dan plays percussion for the show every year and he had some extra tickets lo those many years ago, and we’ve made it a point to go ever since because we had so much fun.

To give you an idea of what is going on, the various groups at Pepperdine (mostly fraternities and sororities) can put together an approximately 10 minute act featuring singing and choreography around a given theme. This year’s theme was “Off the Clock,” and featured acts about inventing, baking, graffiti, a spelling bee, reading, music, video games, and camping. This was one of the biggest shows we’ve seen with seven student groups and a non-competing faculty and staff group. In between performances a set of hosts come out and do a musical number and where there have been six in the past, this year they expanded to eight (which I will say seemed a little too busy for a smallish stage). In all, there’s a lot of fun and a lot of music and dancing, with some very creative stories being told.

I will say that over seven years the hosts have been pretty uniformly wonderful. They do a great job picking a fantastic set of people to guide you through the night (although sometimes the material they have to work with can be a little weak). They actually have videos of last years performances on youtube, so you can check them out. A couple of the hosts usually carry over from year to year, so it’s always fun to see them again (we had one woman we saw host for four straight years, got to be like an old friend by the end of it even though we never spoke to her).

As for the acts themselves, the first group got the show started very strongly, with Jess and I both commenting that it was the strongest choreography we’d yet seen. Their version of “Mr. Roboto” was probably the best choreographed Songfest song I’d ever seen (although it was very close to one year when the students made a beating heart on stage by alternating going up and down . . . you know you probably had to be there). We’ve had years where the first act set the bar very high and then no one was able to catch up, and, while the tension did build a little bit heading towards the end of the first half of the show, thankfully this was not one of those years.

The final student act before intermission opened on a spelling bee and featured an appropriately nerdy protagonist (actually, there were A LOT of nerdy protagonists across the productions, seriously like 200 pairs of glasses were used across all the acts). The combination of a solid use of spelling songs (“ABC” and “Respect”), some really good comedy work, and an ace in the hole soloist on the final song (where everyone just went “Woah!”) made them the new leader for Jess and me going into the break.

There were a couple clever literary references in the first act back after intermission, but the best was actually saved for last as both the final student group and the faculty, staff, and alumni group both hit it out of the park. The students had a video game theme and great guy and girl leads, and an awesome rendition of “The Mob Song” from Beauty and the Beast. The faculty, staff, and alumni had a small group, but they were certainly mighty, and had a fantastic Scooby Doo-ish scene. The also were the winners of Jess’ annual challenge to Dan, where she makes him identify the one song that he would hate normally but actually has a fun time when playing it (this year it was “Life’s a Happy Song.” All hail the sandpaper blocks).

We had a great time and would highly recommend anyone to go check it out. Thanks again to Dan for hooking us up again this year, hopefully he gets some rest tomorrow because Songfest week is always a brutal one for him schedule-wise.

Weight: 233.2 Max: 240 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 69.2 miles (+4.5 miles)
Current Belt: Orange – Next Belt: Blue – Next Test Date: 5/12
Fitocracy Level: 16 (27100 points, 750/4000 to next level) – ID: disciplev1
Soccer – Last Game: L, 5-8 (Record: 0-3) Next Game: 3/18, 5:00 pm
Goals(Points)/Saves – Game 1: 5(7)/7 Game 2: 9(11)/7 Game 3: 5(8)/17