Starving Artists jazzed up their spring concert Friday in Slosberg Recital Hall by supplementing their musical routine with a comedy group: The Dartmouth Dog Day Players. The comedic elements, combined with Starving Artists' repertoire made for a much more enjoyable evening than an ordinary a cappella concert.One of Starving Artists' strongest points is that they do not merely sing a cappella, they act the parts of the characters who are singing. Song is nothing without proper emotion, and the group demonstrated the power of their dramatic abilities during their performance. The Dartmouth Dog Day Players, who added some hysterical improvisational comedy to the show, backed this up. The best of these featured a debate in which the speakers don't know what they are debating, but are given clues by two other actors, who can only use pantomime to communicate.

Increasing the comedic value was that the debate was on the topic "Urinetown: Live Free or Die"-relevant to Brandeis students because of last week's peformance in Shapiro Theater of that play, but there was no way the Dartmouth students could have known that-making the comedy routine all the more funny.

Especially impressive was the emotion-packed and energetic "Something to Talk About," featuring soloist Jennie El-Far '07 singing "Light in Your Eyes," soloist Eli Matzner '08 followed El-Far, and was in similarly excellent form Matzner acted out the trauma that the main characters felt in his song and encouraged the whole group on stage to sit down and listen to his story. Appearing completely despondent, it seemed to take another member of the group patting his shoulder to comfort him to get him through the song.

The acting skill of Josh Mervis '08 was combined with his strong vocals on two numbers: "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" and "When I am King." The audience could sense the emotion and expression in his every move, and deep in his eyes, you could see the inner feelings of hischaracter: embodied in each song. The extra quality of facial expression added to the singing was carried out between most songs, as they used smart dialogue to transition from one to another, and added to the superb vocal talent.

Near the end of the concert, the group took a moment to honor Starving Artists' one graduating member, Nick Barasch '06. His soothing, melodic voice, featured in "Fields of Gold," made all the stress of the day melt away in to a puddle of nothingness. Also opening the concert, and easing the audience into the world of a cappella, Barasch was featured in "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Barasch has been a staple of Starving Artists for long enough that the vocal quality of the group is sure to change without him.