On the shuttle bus on the way to the Hawaii Theatre we saw our cruise ship, Pride of America, but couldn't get a photo to show you. It's big!
Our MC was Brent Anderson from California, who also filled in the gaps between choruses with jokes. We now have a considerable repertoire of very bad jokes about retirement homes and such like.
The choruses that were memorable for us were:
Sounds of Aloha, from Hawaii, who wore street clothes and started with a medley of Summertime and How Deep is the Ocean about going through US Immigration and then the hidden costs of flying ("How much is that sandwich, that corn beef on rye? I take out a twenty and kiss it goodbye"). Then they did "Has Anyone Seen Our Bus" about missing the shuttle bus to competition, and having to compete with Sweet Adelines instead (they put on wigs and gold lame, then stomped on them because the notes were too high).
Then Tokyo Barber, from Japan. Their second song was a parody, "I'm always taking photos", and they took out real cameras and photographed the audience and the judges, held up a big picture frame, photographed the director when he tripped over the frame, and then went off stage still taking photos. Those guys from Japan have a great sense of humour!
Pride of Auckland were nearly all young men, from New Zealand, wearing Maori wrap-around skirts in black with a purple stripe, and black shirts. They had great blend and sound and really expressive faces, lots of energy - and were placed first in Small Chorus and first overall.
Mighty River, from NZ, weren't placed but they sang "Nobody knows you when you're down and out" beautifully, with lots of feeling, and made Deborah cry.
Greater Vancouver Gentlemen of Fortune were a bigger chorus that included three young boys, all less than 10. Ange described them as "gentlemanly", and they had a nice sound. They were placed third in Open Chorus.
Midnight Sons Chorus, from Anchorage Alaska, all dressed as pirates - beautifully detailed costumes, including one bare chested pirate with tattoos and muscles, and props like a ship's wheel, and a skull, and real swords. They carried the pirate theme through both comp songs. They also got a standing ovation (and Vicki, we want to be pirates too).
We thought Sydney Harmony sounded and looked good and followed the plan for their two comp songs. Vicki, as always, was gorgeous in her slinky red dress.
Northern Regional Chorus from NZ were a bigger chorus that had a lovely sound and great dynamics. They were placed second overall and first in Large Chorus.
So, the winners were:
small chorus - Pride of Auckland (NZ)
intermediate size chorus - Metropolitan Chorus of Japan
large size - Northern Region Chorus (NZ)
Overall chorus champions:
1st - Pride of Auckland
2nd - Northern Region Chorus
3rd - Greater Vancouver Gentlemen of Fortune.
After the chorus comp Jo and I went shopping (again) and met a lovely shop assistant and her friend in Macy's. We caught a real bus (not a shuttle bus) home with the friend's assistance - Hawaiians are lovely, helpful, friendly people.
Then back to the Hawaiian Theatre again on the shuttle bus for the evening session of quartet finals and the Show of Champions. We found a wine bar opposite the theatre and had creme brulee and a cup of tea while we were waiting for the doors to open.
The quartet finals were great entertainment - hard to pick who should be the winners. All the quartets sang two different songs from what they'd done in their semi-final package.
High Fidelity (who won the comp) did a Star Trek package complete with wigs, uniforms and pointy ears for Spock. "You can bring back Kirk, though he's kind of a jerk, but you can't bring Sulu"; and "Beam me up Scotty, I must use the potty" - with appropriate choreo moves. Then they sang "Five foot two, with skin of blue, has anybody seen my Azurian gal". They got a standing ovation. too
Eight Feet Under continued their previous theme with a funeral (gravestone) for their friend who had the heart attack; he came back as a ghost as they sang "From the first hello to the last goodbye". The ghost held out his red velvet heart as they sang "Heart, I love you, my old heart" and then when the ghost said "BOO" the other three died, became ghosts too, and "ooooohed" the end of the song.
The winning quartets were:
1st place - High Fidelity with 1905 points
2nd place - Over The Edge with 1781 points
3rd place - Soap with 1762 points.
Vintage Gold was the Senior Quartet champion but we still haven't heard an announcement about Novice Quartet and Mixed Harmony Champions - maybe tomorrow.
The Show of Champions was an introduction by the host chorus, The Sounds of Aloha, plus the top two choruses and quartets. We didn't take notes, so our recollection is a little hazy here, but we remember that Pride of Auckland did a traditional Maori song with poi, and then a haka, and we persuaded them to do an encore as well (arranged by their Director, Brian Lee) they were wonderful. Brian also co-directed Northern Regional Chorus and sang lead in Over the Edge, second placed quartet). We reckon he's a male version of our Vicki.
We met up with Linda and Kerry who had run into Di, Ros, Amanda and Wendy (and daughter), who had arrived earlier today after a long sleepless flight. So we dropped into their hotel room to say hello, and stayed for a Benedictine. The girls were pretty jet-lagged but we all went down to the After Glow party. On the way past Reception we ran into Ase Hagemann, who'd just arrived after a 27 hour flight from Sweden.The After Glow was male barbershoppers in small groups all over the place singing (all at the same time, different songs). Then they had a more formal program which started with Double Shot, but it was tough going against the background chatter.
It's 12:30 am and we've left them to it; we're going to have a cup of tea and go to bed. We were going to relocate to Holiday Inn Waikiki tomorrow morning but we've just arranged to stay on at the Ala Moana because it's closer to the Convention Centre and because that's where all the other girls from CKC are staying - yeah!
So far it's been an awesome experience for our first international convention - and we've only been here four days!
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