On Wednesday, BaRuCH, the Brandeis Reform Chavurah, took over Chums. The Brandeis Brass Ensemble opened the show. The group is comprised of members Adam Turek-Herman '06 on the tuba, Maya Kosowsky '06 on the trombone, Judith Mendelsohn '05 and Sarah McDonald '07 on the french horn, Costa Walcott '04 on the euphonium, Sol Schulman '04, Jonathan Senker '04 and Zev Goldstein '06 on trumpet. They opened up with "Dixie Clambake."

All the players sounded smooth and good together. However, as the performance continued with "Hungarian Dance #5," "American Patrol" and The Pink Panther theme, the group began to sound a little rusty. Some people had a hard time hitting all the right notes. While it was still acceptable, it sounded like, with a little more practice, they could perfect their performance.

The show continued with Josh Adland '07, playing his acoustic guitar. He began with a James Taylor song called "Something in the Way She Moves." Adland's main problem was that his voice was too quiet. It was very hard to hear him above the din in Chums. Also, since he was playing soft rock, the crowd quickly lost interest in his mellow songs and began to talk very loudly.

Adland continued with songs by Harry Chapin, Buddy Mondlock and Dan Nichols. He also took out an instrument called a mountain dulcimer and played a short melody on it. But despite the unique instruments he brought in, Adland still had a hard time maintaining the attention of the audience.

Next to take the stage was a Tae Kwon Do demonstration by Dena Shaffer '05. With the help of her assistant Aron Klein '05, she broke wood boards with her hands and feet. She also taught Klein how to break them himself. It was a very entertaining interlude.

Rebecca Katz '05 then performed folk music on her acoustic guitar. Katz is no stranger to the Chums coffeehouse scene and has perfected her stage performing. She was engaging with the audience, telling them stories about the songs she was going to play. She played an array of folk songs including Kris Delmhurst's "Yellow Brick Road," Edwin McCain's "I'll Be," one of her own songs "The Walking Song," Nancy Jervis' "It's a Hard Life Wherever We Go" and Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's." During "I'll Be" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Katz asked the crowd to sing along.

The next group was the South Street Bluegrass Band consisting of Sam Pentsonk '06 on banjo and guitar and Jonathan Gradman '06 on guitar. They began with an instrumental piece which was quite impressive. It was very obvious that they are both talented and that they were having fun with each other. One noticeable detail was that sometimes, the southern twang in their voices seemed a little forced. However, more remarkable was how incredibly rude the crowd was during their performance. At one point, the chatter in the audience rose so loud that someone had to quiet them for the sake of the performers. Bluegrass may not be a widely favored genre at Brandeis, but the rudeness was inexcusable.

The headliner of the evening, Manginah, then took the stage. Consisting of Alison Beker '04, Maya Cohen '04, Ari Fleisher '07, Miriam Jacobson '06, Jonathan Kaufman-Sher '05, Sam Knee '07, Shira Margolies '04, March Mendelsohn '06, Tahlia Orbach-Smith '06, Preston Neal '07, Jessie Podell '06, Adam Shain '04, Hillel Skolnik '06, Rafi Skowronski '04 and Meira Soloff '07, Manginah sings a mix of Hebrew and English songs. Maginah, as an ensemble, produces very good music. For example, "Bawna Semana" which was sung together, sounded almost perfectly harmonious. However, in other songs their soloist or background arrangements were weak. At one point they sounded totally out of sync with each other.

Songs like "Purim"-which was "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray, only about Jewish holidays-were very entertaining. Their performance was entertaining but could use some improvement.

The night had its ups and downs, its distractions and its disturbances, but BaRucH managed to put together quite an entertaining coffeehouse. They pulled from all different walks of Brandeisian talent-covering the ground from banjo players to brass bands-and despite occasional lack of audience interest, gave themselves an excellent first showing of the semester.