Outside, the temperature`s dropping; it`s shaping up as one of Chicago`s coldest weekends of the winter. But inside the Roxy, the atmosphere is one of cozy, casual camaraderie: Nearly all of the 100 seats in the Fullerton Avenue club`s small showroom are filled on this Friday night, and the crowd
–including two people sporting T-shirts proclaiming ”You can`t stop the a capella rock”–is obviously primed to have a good time.
The fun begins, a few minutes later, with the arrival on stage of a fresh-faced young man wearing jeans and a bowling shirt identifying him as
”Guy 1.” To the beat of his snapping fingers and tapping sneakered feet, he begins singing the nonsense syllables of a doowop number. Within seconds, he`s joined on stage by a similarly bowling-shirted Guy 2, who adds his baritone voice to Guy 1`s bass. A tenor arrives momentarily in the person of Guy 3, followed by the lead singer, Guy 4. There`s a slapstick handshaking routine, and then, while the crowd is still laughing, the four guys in the spotlight launch into an a capella version of ”Young Blood.”
Chances are that a lot of the mostly Baby Boomer crowd knows the words to the song; it was a Top 20 hit a decade ago for Bad Company (and a Top 10 hit a decade before that for `50s favorites the Coasters). But nobody sings along or, as is often the case when an act launches into an a capella song, starts clapping along. The crowd at the Roxy is too busy listening, and besides, they don`t want to miss any of the funny business that seems to happen spontaneously when Guys 1 through 4–who also answer to Darren Stephens, Noah Budin, Rick Vamos and Scott MacEwen–get together.
Collectively known as Four Guys Standing Around Singing, these four Ohio natives have suddenly emerged as one of the hottest new acts on the Chicago club circuit, thanks to the theatrical spin they`ve put on that oldie-but-goodie, vocals-only singing style in which voices do double-duty as musical instruments. Combining technical competence and a love of the genre with good- naturedly goofy antics onstage, this irrepressible quartet serves up a capella with an attitude that so far has taken them from singing on Rush Street and Michigan Avenue street corners to a regular Friday night gig at the Roxy–and landed them a starring role in an upcoming national television commercial for McDonald`s.
Along the way, the quartet has been mooned by a drunk while performing on the steps of the old Water Tower and rudely pelted with quarters by inebriated St. Louis Cardinals fans while singing near Wrigley Field after a Cubs-Cardinals game. On a more triumphant note, there was the summer night they collected $400 in cash, a carton of Chinese take-out food (Vamos was the only one who would eat it) and a couple of romantic propositions from enchanted passers-by. But their biggest break so far came last fall, when a WLUP radio staffer caught them in action at a local restaurant and hired them to appear at a station party. The party date led to the quartet being invited to do a couple of songs live on WLUP deejay Jonathon Brandmeier`s program–and a McDonald`s executive happened to catch the show on his car radio and liked what he heard.
For the Four Guys, all in their mid-twenties, their current success comes after approximately 18 months of hard work. Stephens, Budin and MacEwen, Ohio natives who roomed together while studying theater at Kent State University, moved to Chicago independently a few years ago to pursue singing and acting careers; Vamos, who hails from Cleveland, moved here to pursue a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, with hopes of doing some singing on the side. Stephens, who sang in barbershop quartets and a capella groups in high school and college, met former folk-pop singer and longtime a capella fan Vamos through a musician`s ad in the Reader; in June of 1985 the two teamed up with Stephens` old pals (and `50s and `60s music fans) Budin and MacEwen to form Four Guys Standing Around Singing.
Shortly thereafter, they began spending Friday and Saturday nights singing on Chicago street corners while honing their craft.
”We had all sung practically forever, and we were serious about going someplace with the group right from the start,” says Stephens, who recently quit his job as an order-taker at a contact lens company to devote all of his time to the Four Guys and his fledgling acting career. (MacEwen has kept his job at the Halsted Street Fish Market; Budin works for Broadway Costume and Vamos has a scholarship that helps cover his expenses.)
”We knew we wanted to work in an a capella format,” adds Vamos. ”We just weren`t sure what we wanted to do with it.”
One thing the four agreed upon was that they wanted to develop a bona fide show as opposed to being simply four guys who sang. What they wound up with is a still-evolving, free-wheeling act that grabs an audience with its humor as well as with its 40-song repertoire, which includes rock and roll oldies such as ”Duke of Earl,” ”Runaround Sue” and ”Love Potion No. 9”
as well as comic originals. Vocally, the Four Guys aren`t about to blow a classic a capella group such as the Persuasions off a stage soon. On the other hand, the Persuasions aren`t going to crack up an audience with goofy crowd-pleasers such as ”Shy Kidneys” and ”Roach Motel.”
”We don`t have a true bass in the group, and we don`t have a tenor who can hit a C sharp,” admits Stephens, who, like the rest of the group, has long admired the Persuasions. ”We all have pretty much the same voice range and we all just kind of fell into our vocal parts because we`re a little bit better at that particular part. Noah wound up singing baritone because he got to town last and all the other parts were taken, for instance.
”People who are real sticklers for a capella music could say, `Well, you all aren`t that good,` I guess, but we really haven`t gotten much of that,”
he adds. ”A lot of our fans are our age and like the music because it`s new to them. But we also have a lot of older people who say that they like us because we do songs from their youth.”
The challenge, as the Four Guys see it now, is to take their act from small clubs to larger venues without losing the intimacy and camaraderie that plays a large part in their appeal. In the intimate confines of the Roxy, the group pulls the crowd into their act with practiced ease. Stephens jokes with fans at front-row tables–only inches from the stage–about the chances of the fans` drinks ending up in their laps during an impromptu dance number; Budin stops the show to goodnaturedly castigate a couple of latecomers (who talk back).
It all goes over great, but how would it play on David Letterman or Saturday Night Live, two places the Four Guys dream about playing someday?
”We`re still learning,” says Stephens. ”We would like to get a record deal someday, too, but we want to make sure we have the right stuff before we pursue that, so we won`t waste anybody`s time. But things are starting to happen.”
