Pentatonix Gets The Crowd Singing at The Woodlands 🪐 Space City Frequency 🪐 Reina Vasquez

If you didn’t know who they were when you got to the concert, they made sure you’d know who they are by the end of their intro. As someone who absolutely loves music and has been avidly on YouTube since I could remember, it made my heart so full to see how far Pentatonix has come. Their introduction video that played before they came on showed some of the founding members of the group, Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, and Mitch Grassi as high school students singing together. It then showed bits and pieces of how they got their last two members which sparked the beginning of their YouTube channel. This channel launched their careers into critical acclaim and multiple Grammy wins. They are also Texas natives which they mentioned later in their set and said they are “happy to be back in Texas” which made the crowd go wild.

When they came out on stage, it was clear that each member had their own unique individual style in regard to their wardrobe and singing. However, it all coalesces perfectly into beautiful harmonies and vocals. They started their set with their cover of Imagine Dragon’s “Radioactive” which is the cover they did with Lindsey Stirling on her YouTube channel. It was such a strong and amazing start! It definitely set the tone for the rest of the night. The next two songs they did were originals they created. The first one was “I Rise” which is a single they just released in August. This one really continued the dark, apocalyptic vibe, but they did a complete 180 and did their very first original single they ever released which was “Can’t Sleep Love”. It’s a very sweet, lighthearted, poppy song which lifted the mood.

This concert was incredibly unique since they are an acapella group it really was just their voices and, for some songs, a track in the back. Most of the time, they sang the instrumental bits in harmony with the melody. It was really amazing to hear the amount of musical texture they could make using just their voices. The vocal control each member possessed was insane especially Matt Sallee, the bass, and Mitch Grassi, the tenor. Sallee’s incredibly low and clear singing register and Grassi’s soaring high register was definitely a massive highlight for this concert.

My absolute favorite part of the concert was when they highlighted both Kevin Olusola and Matt Sallee. Olusola was alone on the stage for a moment, just him and his cello. I did not expect to see an instrument at all that night, so it was definitely a welcomed surprise. The first thing he played on cello was “Julie-O” by Mark Summer. However, there was a twist, he beatboxed simultaneously as he played the piece. It was impressive. He was able to masterfully play his cello while beatboxing difficult patterns and rhythms. He then decided to bring it back to classical roots by playing a portion of the Prelude from the first suite of the Bach cello suites. It was a beautiful rendition which he then modernized by adding beatboxing towards the end of it. The best part of this cello break was when Matt Sallee joined him on stage to play drum set alongside him and rocked out to an arrangement Olusola created of Beethoven’s fifth. It was awesome, it is so rare to see classical pieces make it into pop concerts like this, so I really enjoyed that. I love it when artist incorporate things like this in their sets because they may inspire younger generations to pursue music not only for the pop side, but also for the classical side of it.

Another fun moment that highlighted Olusola and Sallee was when they did a medley of songs. During this medley, they asked for audience participation in the form of a sing-along. They sang a wide variety of songs but the most memorable ones for me were “Sweet Caroline”, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, and “ We Will Rock You”. The audience was having the time of their lives singing along and guessing the songs, it was awesome! That wasn’t the only moment they relied heavily on audience participation. Earlier in the set, Scott Hoying came out and had the audience sing the Coldplay song “Fix You” with him for a Tik Tok. He decided to split the audience into three groups and gave us each a different harmony to sing with him. The audience really showed out and it shows in the final product which you can see on Pentatonix’s Tik Tok page.

Most of their set list was covers of famous songs and each one was just as incredible as the last. The arrangements they create for each on is insanely intricate and harmonically difficult but at the exact same time, absolutely gorgeous. One of my favorites of the night was when they brought in their opener Lauren Alaina back on stage to sing with them for their cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. It was so sweet of them to bring her back but also incredibly smart as her voice fit the style and sound of the song so perfectly. She not only blended in really well, but she also was able to still highlight her voice over the others. Another one of my favorites was their rendition of “White Winter Hymnal” in which they sang and used their bodies as a percussion instrument. The tapped, snapped, and clapped throughout and none of them missed at beat.

The most iconic cover they have ever arranged and sang is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which they performed at the concert as well. It was awe-inspiring. The emotion, the clarity, and harmonies were just so perfect it was unreal. They ended the night singing arguably one of the most iconic Queen songs ever, “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It was insane to say the least. They sang incredible harmonies, and they used their voices to mimic some of the instrumental bits in the song. The most impressive was the crazy high guitar parts that Grassi mimicked with his voice. The clarity and voice control he needed to execute those parts perfectly seemed to come so effortlessly to him. They nailed the vibe and sound of each different section of the song so well and it really did highlight everyone at least once. It really exemplified what wonderful musicians they are. I felt that this concert overall was a refreshingly modern take on polyphonic choral music. If you ever get the chance to see them in concert and you love choral music, take it! You will absolutely not regret it.