Scrabblechamp takes audience back in time

Band brings children's music to a new level, and crowd enjoys

On Saturday night, the Cat in the Cream hosted a concert by what is possibly Oberlin's most unique campus band. Members double-degree senior Chris Santiago on drums, conservatory senior Rami Vamos and double-degree senior Zach Layton on guitar, conservatory senior Andrew Shapiro on bass, and conservatory junior Claude Sim on violin make up Scrabblechamp.

For an hour, the audience enjoyed a fine selection of the band's home brewed brand of children's songs that Scrabblechamp's main composer, Vamos, describes as "a struggle between Tin Pan Alley, Beatles songs, and weird ethnic music. Some people say it sounds like Stephan Grapelli or Klezmer. A Jewish Tin Pan Alley Klezmer rock."

Asked why Scrabblechamp has a penchant for singing about kids Vamos explained, "Everybody remembers their childhood and the things they remember best are the traumatic things that happened to them and their friends and the people that weren't their friends."

Scrabblechamp hasn't played much recently at the College, but Vamos described some of the band's gigging. "We like playing for grade schools K through 5, which we've done several times, but we're just as comfortable at a college party. Seventh and eighth graders tend to be in a phase where they're too cool to like us."

During their opening number, "Freckles and Braces," the band looked appallingly like an episode of "MTV Unplugged." Avoiding the popular weird and distant college band attitude, the group was relaxed and chatted with the audience throughout the show. Vamos and backup singer Layton really added some charm to their second number, "Doggy Nose," while they warmed up their pipes straining for the high notes in the childlike voices that characterize Scrabblechamp's vocal style.

Vamos introdced the third song as "a cover song by Dvorak." For those who don't know, Antonin Dvorak was a nineteenth century Czech composer. The song took the skipping tune of Dvorak's "Humoresque" and adds a touching story about a little boy who is bullied by a mean girl and seeks comfort from his mother. The mother wipes his tears and sends him back out to play - armed with Mace! Scrabblechamp songs are really different, but when the band played their repertoire on Saturday, they won the whole audience's love.

Their next number was "Birthday Boy" (written for Shapiro's last birthday). The song is simple enough, telling the story of a sad and lonely birthday boy whose surprise birthday party brings him out of his blue mood through love of his friends and the magic of a birthday wish. This might not seem like the kind of stuff that Obies go for, but when the boy's friends showed up, the tempo picked up, and the band's smiles told how much fun they were having, the audience clapped and cheered.

Perhaps Saturday's good energy had something to do with the high level of musicianship in the band. All the members are Conservatory students with three performance majors and two composition majors. The members' skills were evident on Saturday in the seamless breakdowns and fluid chord changes that most college bands couldn't touch.

Halfway through the show, Rami gave a brief history of the band. Scrabblechamp started in 1995 with Sim and Vamos as the founding members laying down songs for their answering machine. The other members joined one year later. Rami described the band's songs as being "about children who have some kind of problem."

When asked about the band's name by an audience member, Rami said that while there are no songs specifically including a scrabblechamp character, "a kid who was a scrabble champ would also probably get picked on." After their interaction with the audience, the band launched into "Billy," which was introduced as being about "the fattest kid in the school," and includes Vamos's favorite of his lyrics: "Nobody would play with him/at recess on the playground/They thought it funny/that he had big tummy/ They said he weighed too many pounds."

Without stoppingthe music, the band went right into "Crayon Drawing" which was accompanied by illustrations by artist and violist Ellen Butters. The "musical joke" is something that one learns about in a music history class and is usually something that is reserved for music snobs, but during his jazzy guitar solos, Vamos had the audience laughing along with him.

Next came "To the Dentist," the only song on the program that was not written by Vamos. The song of a kid's trip to the dentist was written and sung by Shapiro. Half way through the song, everything stopped for Vamos to challenge Andrew's lyrics, saying, "dental lice? What's dental lice?" Shapiro retorted, "It rhymes with nice!" and the group jumped back into the song.

Next up was "Cricket," with some spicy fiddling by Sim. The show ended after abou an hour with "Favorite Old Lady," which blended tempo changes, harmonic minor harmony, and a "la la la" chorus to make sure everyone left the Cat in a good mood, and perhaps a bit more secure about being a loser in middle school.