A vibrant combination of music from such favorites as Jimi Hendrix, They Might Be Giants and swing music’s Louis Jordan brought the Best A Cappella Comedy Group (2000) at the A Cappella Recording Awards alive on Sunday at St. Louis’ Center of Contemporary Arts (COCA).

A small stage, nearly the size of Saint Louis University’s own theater, became the place where this award-winning group, The Bobs, passed on some wonderful and unique songs to their audience.

On Sunday, the theater was filled with families and many other community members to watch the opening act of COCA’s 2001 Family Theatre Series. Surprisingly enough, this same group that snagged the Signed Professional Best Album at the 2000 Recording Awards also maintained a reputation as a group suitable for families and people of all ages.

This mesmerizing vocal group was born in San Francisco after Western Union stopped its telegram deliveries. Several former singing telegram deliverers were left without a job, and two of them decided to use their voices for another purpose.

They put a classified ad in the paper for a bass singer and soon enough, this duo became a trio with the addition of Richard “Bob” Greene.

Of the four current members of the band, there are two original members left. Matthew “Bob” Stull was one of the two men who started this group and he still leads the band in most of their audience interactive songs.

Joe “Bob” Finetti is the soul of the band, leading each song with bass. He almost sounds like a machine and he leaves people wondering, “Is that really his voice?” But it is, and again and again the audience was amazed at how low he can go.

Richard “Bob” Greene is a new voice for this band.

His talent with vocal percussion, sound effects and pyrotechnics leave the audience in a respectful silence or applauding and cheering like crazy because they are completely amazed that a human can make those noises.

In any case, Finetti’s addition to the band has been crucial in helping to develop these four people into a solid band with stable voices.

The final member of the band is Amy “Bob” Engelhardt. She brings a feminine touch to the group and in doing that, she exudes confidence to the entire audience.

Her place as a female singer has won her acclaim from several different areas, most notably when she was honored as best female vocalist at the A Cappella Recording Awards.

Each member of the group contributes different talents to the group, and somehow, at show time, it all comes together to give the audience an idea of what a cappella group can be.

The mixture of music that The Bobs dished out to the audience was very well received.

They included cover songs from different genres of music and from different eras.

They included classic rock with The Doors, to swing with Louis Jordan and even to contemporary with They Might Be Giants.

The Bobs’ attempt at “Particle Man” left the audience giggling in their chairs at the absurdity, yet the popularity, of this song.

Richard “Bob” Greene says that each of the members of the bands lives in different places, but they all reunite for each gig.

This ties in directly with the biggest weakness that the band experienced: chemistry.

The other members of the group were oftentimes the biggest critics of another’s attempt to make the audience laugh.

What the group lacked in chemistry, they made up in audience interaction and cover songs that made several people, young and old, feel the music.

Chemistry is something that comes with time and trust and with The Bobs long concert schedule for the rest of this year, they will be seeing enough of each other to build some strong relationships.

The rating: B, but expect to see this group improve in the coming year.

You can get more information about The Bobs at www.bobs.com or about COCA at www.cocastl.org.

Located in the University City Loop, COCA frequently features art exhibits, musical performances and other events for the art savvy or simply the adventurous.