At the 34th annual Cherry Tree Massacre, hosted by the Georgetown Chimes, you will be torn between raucous laughter and oppression, trying not to sing along to all the cheap love songs.
This past Friday, the Chimes hosted the co-ed Georgetown Phantoms and American University’s Dime a Dozen, as well as the all female Belles, from the University of Virginia. Master of Ceremonies Steve Alleva (COL ’05), a former member of the Chimes, bounced about the stage between acts, engaging the audience in group introductions and attempting a bad impression of GU comic Mike Birbigila.
After a brief Chimes intro, the Belles took the stage with a couple of impressive soloists. Although their songs tended to stick to I’ll-never-be-the-same-without-you themes, the group’s evident talent and confidence held the audience’s attention.
The Georgetown Phantom’s followed the act and topped the Belles performance thanks to the added benefit of an enthusiastic male presence. Ramy Rahal (COL ‘07) accompanied his solo, “All These Things that I’ve Done” (The Killers), with Elvis-like pelvic movements; his strangely entertaining presence was appreciated, however, when he provided solid vocal backup and dance moves for the group’s version of Duran Duran’s “Rio.”
The last guest group to perform, the American University Dime a Dozen, seemed to fall short of its predecessors in vocal talent—but what they lacked in tone, they had in song selection. The only group to seriously deviate from R&B generic romance, Dime a Dozen sang “Let Go” (Frou Frou) and “Bright Lights” (Matchbox 20), and offered refreshing entertainment you could sing and tap your foot to without suffering humiliation.
The Chimes stole the night, however.
Opening with a pretty, Celtic-sounding ballad, they moved on to James Taylor’s “Your Smiling Face” and a Beach Boys medley; their group dynamic of college boys and one Jesuit gave the silly Do-Wop songs a light-hearted quality which left the audience beaming in spite of itself.
The night took a turn, however, with a Georgetown spoof of “If I had a Million Dollars,” enlivened by inside jokes, cravings for Chicken madness, and the hiring of Jack DeGoia. Their classic finale—“If I Were Not a Georgetown Chime”—had Chimes members scurring frantically about Gaston, holding fake urine samples with suspicious yellow liquid, and riding bicycles. Fr. James Walsh, the Jesuit, had the audience convulsing with his imitation of student life, with the line, we “party, worry, and bitch about our grades.
Although the stellar performance of the Chimes tended to dim the qualities of the groups who were lucky enough to come before them, it’s still worth the ten-dollar price tag. And if, before th e show, you feel uncomfortably surrounded by die-hard Chimes fans, by the end of the evening you will feel the urge to become one yourself.
