The six a cappella groups have a new performance space Thursdays in South Side Espresso Bar.
People stopped to stare while entering and exiting Nelson Dining Hall to check out the live music in South Side Espresso Bar.
Dozens of people occupied South Side Espresso Bar as the first ever Café A Cappella kicked off Thursday night. The series takes place at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays at South Side Espresso Bar.
“I am so glad because now that there are six groups on campus now," Jacob Mullins, a junior studying music therapy and member of New Chords on the Block, said. "It’s nice to have something regular like this where we know everyone is going to have a gig and people to watch them. It’s really cool for the a cappella community as a whole.”
Drew Banks, the general manager of all five Ohio University cafés, said his goal is to do more activities at South Side Espresso Bar in Nelson Commons. Discussions about Café A Cappella began after Banks realized a handful of students working in the cafés are also in a cappella groups.
“We were trying to get the word out about South Side a little bit,” Banks said. “We wanted to do some entertainment. We knew it either had to be acoustic or something. It wasn’t going to be a full band or anything.”
Banks said the process creating and continuing the event will be “fluid” and flexible. He said it will be a trial and error system with discussion to help make the performances accessible for the groups on campus.
Matt Fujita, a senior studying language arts education and member of Leading Tones, said because the event is brand new the a cappella groups and the workers for the café are learning together to make it work.
“We’re a large group of guys,” Fujita said. “We’re already established on campus, and we figured if we start going in there week after week and we get some other a cappella groups in there week after week, people will realize it’s a thing and maybe start to form an interest around it.”
Title IX, an all female group auditioned out of Women’s Ensemble, and New Chords on the Block, a coed group, sang at the first performance, which lasted nearly 30 minutes. Title IX sang first and the café fell entirely silent.
Maggie Fahey, a senior studying music education and a member of Title IX, said she was surprised by how many people were in attendance because it was such a new event.
“It’s a really cool opportunity because these performances reach a different audience than we normally get for our gigs because we normally advertise for people in the music community or people who have heard of us before,” Fahey said.
New Chords on the Block sang popular hits and a Beatles song from the ’70s.
“This is actually a great place to sing, which I wasn’t expecting that," Mullins said. "We could all hear each other and I think tonight sounded good."
Café A Cappella is looking to possibly extend to other light acoustic music acts and incorporate more entertainment throughout the week, Banks said.
Fujita said he’s eager to be able to perform in the café and help the series grow.
“I think if that get going on a regular basis, I think it could get just as popular,” Fujita said. “People will say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m at South Side Café studying because they’re there listening to the music like they do in Front Room.”
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