Posted on September 19th, 2009 in Storytime by Dave Girtman

This fall, there’s a new TV show launching on NBC called “The Sing Off.”  Think of it like American Idol for a cappella groups– 8 groups will be selected to compete, and each week one will be sent home until the last group left wins a recording contract with Sony BMG.  Sounds like fun, right?

We decided to audition, because even if we don’t make the show it would be a fun experience and a story to tell.  The complicating factor?  Auditions were in Atlanta, which is a bit of a drive.  Nevertheless we wanted to make it the first Yahtzee roadtrip of the year, so on the 16th we met at 7:30am (ouch!) and set off for Atlanta.

We got to the audition site (a really cool building with a stage and about $1 million worth of sound equipment inside, no lie) and checked in, turning in our mound of audition forms and changing into our audition clothes.  The director wanted to get some footage of us before our audition, so he took us outside and recorded a couple takes of us singing while walking down the middle of a street in Atlanta.  It was a great shot; we hope it’s included in the first episode!

Then we went into the actual audition.  Three or 4 people were sitting at the judges’ table; there was a cameraman, and several other people were lining the walls.  They had a pretty nice sound setup– two area mics and 6 handhelds.  We were able to give both of our basses, both our percussionists, and our soloist a mic, which REALLY helped with our sound.  We sang “Somebody to Love” by Queen (an arrangement by our former music director, and also recorded on our most recent CD, “17“) and a song new to the group this year, “When I Get Home, You’re So Dead” by Mayday Parade (a band that actually started out in Tallahassee; you can listen to the song here).  The judges seemed to enjoy a lot of what we sang and had some nice words for us after we finished.

After our singing audition we went into another room for a quick interview with a casting director.  After answering questions about where our name came from (we were joking when we told her the story, but I don’t think she got it) and what makes us the group to beat (our answers ranged from “family” to “we’re redefining the O face”), we were sent back to the front desk to fill out Background check paperwork.

And those people are thorough.  Aside from the standard questions about whether or not we’ve been convicted of a crime, etc, we also faced questions about whether or not we’ve ever taken pictures or video of ourselves in… er… “compromising” situations.

After that we were all done, went and got something to eat (Note: downtown Atlanta at 5pm on a Wednesday during a terrible storm is not the place to go looking for a meal) and got back on the road, finally getting back to Tallahassee at around 11.

We’ll find out in a few weeks whether or not we’ve made the show, but regardless it was a great for us both as a bonding experience and as a musical one.  Stay tuned for more news!

-Dave