The Limestones, St. Olaf’s beloved campus a cappella group, held their annual fall concert on Friday, Nov. 4. There was a solid turnout in the Lion’s Pause, full of Oles eager to listen to what the Limestones have been working hard on all semester long.
The show opened with a solo by Ben Dyleuth ’17, performing Train’s “Hey Soul Sister” to the delight of the crowd. That song was quickly followed by senior Ted Deitz’s ’17 solo rendition of Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You.” The concert also featured some country tunes led by Chris Flicek’s ’17 solo performances of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and the Zac Brown Band’s “Colder Weather.” Hannes Carlsen ’19 performed two solos in his first Limestones concert: “Ophelia” and “My Girl,” and he even humored the audience with a witty election reference.
Near the end of the show, Dyleuth performed Sia’s 2016 hit “Cheap Thrills,” which really enlivened the crowd. After the song came to an end, the Limestones left the stage, and the crowd clamored for the classic Malt-O-Meal song to be sung. When the Limestones returned and began singing the traditional concert-closing song, the audience erupted with cheers and applause.
Deitz was really pleased with the Limestones’ performance on Friday.
“It was really fun to be able to put everything together for the concert,” he said.
He acknowledged that it can be difficult at times to hear the other singers when everyone has their mics on. He thought the first half was a good performance, but the energy was low due to the more laid-back set list. However, by the end of the night, the entire crowd was standing and cheering as the Limestones belted out the Malt-O-Meal tune.
In the second half of the show, Deitz believed the group turned in a stronger performance and engaged the crowd with more upbeat music, and the area mic helped them sound a lot tighter as a group. Overall, the Limestones had a lot of fun and provided a quality concert atmosphere that engaged the crowd and left everyone feeling satisfied with the performance.
Claire Belisle ’17, a music major in attendance on Friday, said that she really liked the variety of the songs, ranging from country to pop to slow and fast. She also said that the Limestones “let the soloists shine while supporting them with interesting and tasteful backup vocal arrangements.” Her favorite song of the night was Deitz’s “Thinkin Bout You” solo early in the show.
“Overall, it was super fun and I thought it went really well,” Deitz said.
The Limestones have one more concert this semester, the annual Christmas concert just before the holidays. So if you missed them last Friday, you can still check out their amazing voices one more time this semester, and again in the spring. There are also rumblings of a new Limestones CD that could be dropping this spring.
