Starving Artists took the stage Saturday night, dressed very classy in white and black semi formal wear. Ashley Firestone's '05 strong voice opened the show on a good note with Hoobastank's "Running Away." The Starving Artists then announced The Clark Bars from Clark University, who then took the stage. The Clark Bars - bars as in music bars, not the candy - took the stage wearing their own customized collared t-shirts, also looking professional. I was sadly mistaken.

The Clark Bars opened up their set with a lot of energy and required audience participation. However, even their enthusiasm could not save them from their unimpressive voices and shabby background arrangements. The Clark Bars first performed a decidedly uninspired rendition of "Soul Man." The soloist's voice was flat, and it sounded more like he was saying the words than singing them. The next song, "Loving You" by Alicia Keyes, was also a disappointment. The singer's voice was too soft so you could barely hear her which caused the effect of the background arrangement to be much more noticeable. This song showed that their arrangements were simply not working.

Their two other songs - "Three Libras" by A Perfect Circle and "Objection" by Shakira - were just hard to listen to. At one point the audience had to sit there and listen to someone try to hit high notes that were obviously out of their range. It was painful. The Clark Bars that came to Brandeis consisted of Jyllian Paul, Dan Ray, Mel Pelletier, Alessa Zimmerman, Shannon West, Geo Poor, Scott Cobban, Terri Zeletsky and Gerard Barsoum. While six of their members were missing on Saturday the Clark Bars still have a lot of work to do before they can sound good as a group.

After The Clark Bars finished their set, the Starving Artists took the stage again. They started off with "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence, sung by Becca Reiman '07. While the Starving Artists was a much-needed relief from The Clark Bars' performance, Reiman did not quite nail this song. The song simply did not match her vocal style. However, it would be good to see her solo in a different song, because she is a more than capable vocalist. Josh Geyer '05 continued with "Dosed" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His performance was very strong and enjoyable to watch. Next was Kate Perch '05 with Dido's "White Flag."

While Perch's voice is very strong, she had a rocky start, asking the group to start over after they had begun the song. However, after she caught her breath and really began to sing, she made up for the rough beginning and put her heart in to the song. Craig Lareau '04 continued the show with Guster's "Amsterdam." Lareau was also a good soloist, making Starving Artists seem like the superior group.

Following Lareau was Jessica Peres '04 with "Feels Like Home" by Chantal Kreviazuk. Peres' voice stood out as being one of the strongest in the group. The song is beautiful on its own, but Peres made it sound amazing. This song was one of the highlights of the show. Nick Barasch '06 continued the performance with "King of New Orleans" by Better Than Ezra. His voice was a little soft, but he more than made up for that with enthusiasm. The audience could see that Barasch was really getting in to his performance, which made the song fun to watch. It was apparent that Barasch really enjoys singing and being on stage. Perch sang another solo of Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You." This time her performance went off without a flaw, and she again did a really great job. Starving Artists closed out their show with Firestone returning to sing The Police's "Message in a Bottle." Firestone did an amazing job with this song, and it really ended the show with a bang and with a good feeling about Starving Artists' potential for this year.

A strong point in Starving Artists is the group's background arrangement ability, which was enhanced with Bert Huang '04 and Jennie El-Far '07. The arrangements were creative, and the group as a whole was very talented. During Peres' solo, Firestone, who had been providing the percussion in the background, suddenly went into a coughing fit and ran off the stage so as not to ruin the song. Another group member picked up her dropped percussion to finish the song. This recovery truly showed the group's talent. Instead of losing the percussion, the group was talented enough to pick it back up and keep going.

Even though The Clark Bars got the show off to a bad start, Starving Artists more than made up for it with their great performance. The Starving Artists have definitely started off the year strongly and have great potential to become one of the strongest groups on campus.