Straight No Chaser is having a productive 2024, with three tours giving the nine-member a cappella group — as well as their fans — plenty of musical variety. Plus, along the way, the group recorded and released a new EP, “90s Proof.”
The group, which started as a college ensemble at Indiana University, kicked things off by bringing back last year’s summer yacht rock-themed show for a spring tour. Then came a more extensive trek in the summer billed as Straight No Chaser’s Summer: The 90s Tour. This new show spotlighted a cappella versions of songs from that decade, ranging from pop tunes from Hanson and the Spice Girls to rockers from Oasis and Weezer.
Now comes Straight No Chaser’s annual holiday tour, which stops Sunday at Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs and features selections from the group’s deep catalog of Christmas songs mixed with nonholiday material.
“It is kind of the bread and butter,” singer Walter Chase said of the holiday tour. “So you want to put your best foot forward.”
That means a good deal of planning, preparation and rehearsals ahead of the tour.
Chase said things usually start with the song arrangers in the group, with help from Straight No Chaser’s content director, putting together a set list. They identify songs from past tours that should stay in the show and sometimes write new songs or change arrangements to existing songs — all with the goal of making at least half of each year’s show entirely new.
A good deal of work also goes into the choreography for the tour.
“Our choreographer Jill Hilliard, who is also an Indiana University alumnus, has worked for years with Ricky Martin (among others),” Chase said. “She knows us better than anyone, how to make us look great as guys in their 30s and 40s that are dancing.”
The group also enlists lighting and sound directors to design stage sets and the lighting. This all leads up to production rehearsals.
“We always go to the city that we start in first and just hole up for six or seven days and learn the music and learn the choreography, put it together and do our dress rehearsals before we get out there and do it (for real) for the first time,” Chase said.
And once the tour starts, there’s usually additional tinkering to be done.
“Generally, it takes a couple of shows for us to really figure out which songs are hitting and kind of shifting around (certain songs),” Chase said.
“So even after all these years of doing this (tour) and preparing it’s really getting in front of the audience for the first time, figuring out if it’s going to work.”
