By Madeline Wierzal
The Student Showcase, an annual event at The Union, took place on Feb. 7, 2014. Almost all the workers at the student union call this event their favorite of the year. That consensus seemed to be mirrored by much of the North Central College campus, given how crowded it was with over half the venue being standing room only.
The students in the audience felt included under the “Student Showcase” title because the audience’s warm energy was just as much a part of the show as the performers. The audience clapped and sang along to songs they knew and enjoyed themselves.
Some of the performers certainly deserved to be on stage more than others. Slow clapping and general enthusiasm carried audience members through the songs, which made the performance more enjoyable. There were plenty of very gifted musicians and some of them took to the stage multiple times to help with different duos, such as spot-on guitar player Ricardo Morales, originally from Ecuador. Some groups were paired up better than others, but there’s no denying there were plenty of gifted musicians. The musical acts provided brilliant covers of songs that no one sung along in order to better hear the music, but the hearty applause proved their passion.
Outlier, Elaine Cannell, performed her own slam poetry to a highly receptive audience. The single, non-musical act was certainly no less welcome by the audience though, thanks to her solid verse with lines biting enough to draw several hell-yeah responses from the audience and a big applause.
Speaking of originality, the few people who dared to write their own songs were a pleasure to watch. You could feel the nerves of the first timers, and even the more experienced players’ anxiety heightened a little when they shared their own work. As a general rule, the lyrics were generally several times more creative than the latest Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus song. The musicality was solid and I felt proud knowing these people belonged to NCC.
