Straight No Chaser Prepares to Bring Popular A Cappella Act to Colorado Springs | Arts and entertainment

Straight No Chaser is having a productive 2024, with three tours providing the nine-member a cappella group, as well as their fans, plenty of musical variety. Additionally, along the way, the group recorded and released a new EP, “90s Proof.”

The group, which began as a college ensemble at Indiana University, began by bringing back last year’s yacht rock-themed summer show for a spring tour. Then came a more extensive tour in the summer billed as Straight No Chaser’s Summer: The 90s Tour. This new show highlighted a cappella versions of songs from that decade, from pop tunes by Hanson and the Spice Girls to rockers from Oasis and Weezer.

Now comes Straight No Chaser’s annual Christmas tour, stopping Sunday at Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs and featuring selections from the group’s extensive catalog of Christmas songs mixed with non-holiday material.

“It’s kind of a bread and butter thing,” singer Walter Chase said of the Christmas tour. “So you want to do your best.”

That means a lot of planning, preparation and rehearsals before the tour.

Chase said things usually start with the group’s song arrangers, with the help of Straight No Chaser’s content director, putting together a setlist. They identify songs from past tours that should remain in the show, and sometimes write new songs or change arrangements of existing songs, all with the goal of making at least half of each year’s show completely new.

A lot of work also goes into the choreography of the tour.

“Our choreographer Jill Hilliard, who is also an Indiana University alum, has worked for years with Ricky Martin (among others),” Chase said. “She knows us better than anyone, how to make us look great as 30- and 40-year-old kids who dance.”

The group also hires lighting and sound directors to design the set and lighting. All of this leads to production rehearsals.

“We always go to the city we started in first and lock ourselves in for six or seven days and learn the music and the choreography, put it together and do our dress rehearsals before we go out and do it (for real). for the first time,” Chase said.

And once the ride begins, there are usually additional adjustments to make.

“It usually takes us a couple of shows to really figure out what songs are successful and how they change (certain songs),” Chase said.

“So even after all these years of doing this (tour) and preparing for it, it’s really being in front of an audience for the first time, finding out if it’s going to work.”