If you’re tired of complaining about the diverse and often controversial art on campus, a fairly new entry to the Saint Louis University landscape should give students something to sing about.
The Bare Naked Statues are a two-year-old student-run, all-male a cappella group that can be heard singing and serenading students in residence hall lobbies, the quad and any place they could find a curious student’s ear.
The group was founded by then-senior Lawrence Hwang in the hopes of creating a unique singing experience.
The original eight-man group is now 11-members strong. Current members include: Billy Brennan, Dan Cody, Lucas Elmer, Joe Garcia, Lawrence Hwang, Ben Kinnear, Mike McGrath, Trung Tran, Rob Turner, Tim Yau and Eric Yoder.
From its inception, the BNS have been creating a strong underground following.
Sophomore, Rachel Beatty has been a BNS fan from the beginning. “I was friends with Trung and Rob and they told me about the group . I found out how amazingly they could sing, and I’ve been a follower ever since.”
Brennan is one of the original members of the group and says he enjoys the unique aspects of the BNS. “This is a different way of singing and all of the different personalities we bring to the group really connect with the audience. It is a good niche . We don’t just sing, we have fun.”
Brennan stressed the diverse song formats the group performs. “We are really striving toward songs that people like and know. We want them to get involved and sing along. If they don’t know the song they’ll at least leave the concert humming it.”
Turner is another original member who joined his freshman year. “I came to college with the hopes of joining an a cappella group, SLU doesn’t have one, so I got together with a group of guys who wanted to do the same.”
The “guys in the janitors’ shirts,” as they are popularly called, gave their first big performance last spring at MOCRA, where they introduced SLU to the a cappella sound.
Since that show they have been booked at numerous university and off-campus events and are putting together material for this year’s spring concert.
There is also talk of female and co-ed a cappella groups being formed. Washington University has more than ten such groups.
BNS will be kicking off tickets sales for their spring concert on Wednesday, April 10 with a Dorm Storm.
Starting at 5 p.m. in Marguerite, then moving to Griesedieck at 5:30 p.m. and rolling into Reinert Hall at 6:15 p.m., the group will be singing four songs at each location and selling their concert tickets. Individual members will be selling tickets that day in the Quad from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m..
Look for the group at Spring Fever, Friday, April 26, as they sing on stage preparing for their concert the following weekend.
Their concert will be held on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 at 8 p.m., both days, in Cook Hall’s Anhueser-Busch Auditorium. Tickets are $5 and all proceeds go to SLUnion.
Brennan really feels like the group has something to offer everyone; and it is really expressed in their concerts.
“It is one thing to have a group get up and sing, but it is another thing entirely to have a group get up and really perform. That is our big goal.”
If you would like to book the Bare Naked Statues at an event, e-mail them at [email protected] or visit their Web site at www.slu.edu/organizations/bns.
In the meantime, enjoy the spring weather and the blooming flowers around campus; keep an ear out for the janitor-shirt-clad BNS gearing up to paint campus with their own kind of musical art.
