Thursday night, November 3rd, the Filharmonic Acapella group as featured in Pitch Perfect 2 came and gave a performance put on by CSU RamEvents that left them, and us, speechless… except for the screaming.

The energy was buzzing, with nearly every seat filled in the Lory Student Center Theater before the Filharmonic Acapella even entered the stage. However, when the six young men entered the spotlight, the theater filled with cheers.

Most of the audience were young women and, as the music director of the group pointed out, they cheered at nearly everything the performers said. One of the performers even tested this theory about halfway through the performance when they asked, “Cheeseburgers? Pizza? Justin Bieber?” — all got loud cheers, except Bieber didn’t receive quite as loud a cheer.

Yet, this led into their cover of the Bieber song, “Love Yourself“. The Filharmonic Acapella did this for nearly every song, humorously transitioning from the previous topic into the next song. They even acknowledged the audience’s reactions to their songs. One of my favorites was when the audience all pulled out their cellphones during the “Flashlight” song as seen from Pitch Perfect 2, which is the same thing the audience does in the movie. They claimed de ja vu.

Even some of their “songs” brought roaring laughter as the beat-boxers engaged the audience. Trace Gaynor, the performer in a suave black leather jacket, attempted to get the audience to beat box along with him. The only problem was that one section could not reproduce one of the sounds (I don’t even know how to type it), which lead to people attempting hilarious sounds, clapping or stomping in attempts to reproduce the sound. As Gaynor pitted the different sections against each other, this just created a hilarious dilemma with some cool sound effects from Gaynor and the other audience sections.

The Filharmonic performers and the audience had such great chemistry that even if you had never seen an acapella group or Pitch Perfect 2, the performance was upbeat, funny and captivating.

The Filharmonic performers and the audience had such great chemistry that even if you had never seen an acapella group or Pitch Perfect 2, the performance was upbeat, funny and captivating. The performers really made a point about interacting and connecting with the CSU students on a personal level. They sang directly to audience members in the first row, serenading them with “You are My Treasure.”

The best interaction, that brought screams from the audience, was the “sexy song”, which required a young lady to volunteer. As she sat on a chair on stage, all the performers wiggled their butts and caressed her face in a serenade akin to a Magic Mike performance. One of the performers even grabbed her hand to touch his butt –yes, she touched the butt!

The performance was well choreographed but still felt spontaneous and spunky. By the end, the performers were breathless with their reception here… and the Colorado air. As VJ Rosales, the music director of the group, thanked the audience for being so engaging and supportive, he mentioned how much they enjoyed performing here and interacting with us.

“Colorado, [you’re] so nice, so gorgeous, we will never forget you!” said VJ Rosales at the end of their performance. In the end, Filharmonic, it is us who will never forget you.

Collegian writer Anna Hoover can be reached at blogs@collegian.com or on Twitter at @annahoover17. Leave a comment!!