Concert Review: Voca People

The group shows tremendous talent in their ability to sing, dance, create sounds that simply don't sound human.

By RUTH BELOFF
Voca People_311 (photo credit: Courtesy of Lotan/PR)
Voca People_311
(photo credit: Courtesy of Lotan/PR)
The Voca People have landed, and Earth is a better place for it. In an intermission-free concert at the Jerusalem Theater, the amiable aliens from the planet Voca delighted the capacity crowd with their non-stop a capella renderings and amusing antics, not to mention the other-worldly sounds they made using nothing but their voices.
Based on the premise that their spaceship had crash-landed on Earth and the only energy they could use to power their spacecraft was music, the eight white-clad, white-faced extraterrestrials – five men and three women – sang and danced and beatboxed their way into our hearts as they tried to ramp up the fuel to get themselves back home.
For starters, they deftly ran through the entire evolution of music on Earth in snippets, starting with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and zipping through such classics as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”; “Hit the Road, Jack”; some Chuck Berry, Elvis, ABBA, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson – moonwalk and all – and ending with “Who Let the Dogs Out?” In another foray into Earth’s culture, the versatile octet performed the themes from such films as James Bond, The Godfather, The Pink Panther, ET, Mission Impossible, Rocky and Titanic, literally using their voices as their instruments.
In fact, they used some audience members as their instruments as well, pulling several willing participants out of their seats to strum on their arms or tap out a rhythm on their heads. Other entertaining activities with the audience served to further ingratiate the vivacious Voca People with the adoring crowd.
Whether singing as a chorale, as a duet or as soloists, the group showed tremendous talent in their ability to sing, dance and create sounds that simply didn’t sound human. For example, two of the men performed a sound and light piece that sounded like an entire techno band was on stage, with a pulsating beat that pounded the theater to the rafters.
What also rang to the rafters were the resounding cheers of the audience as the esteemed ETs prepared to blast off for their home planet after singing a powerful rendition of “We are the World.”
As they shuffled off the stage with their characteristically quirky little movements, one of the women motioned to a young man she had previously singled out of the audience and gestured, “Call me!” Let’s hope we have another close encounter with these people very soon.