[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Despite what the increasingly absurd “Pitch Perfect” sequels would have you believe, it’s not very common for college a cappella groups to perform together years after graduation. So it is definitely notable that a group of former Tufts University Beelezebubs have been performing their a cappella act together since 1973.
Yes, Peking and the Mystics have been performing since 1973 - though at this point, the group is not fully comprised of original members. Now made up of of Gene Lake, Andrew Cranin, Chris Parker, Tim Vaill and Wellesley resident David Pratt, on Tuesday, the group, named after the Chinese food restaurant in which they first decided to perform together (though they were not in college at the same time, the Beelzebubs have a strong alumni group which brought them together) brought their talents to the Wellesley Library.
Each member introduced a song with a little fun fact about it. Leading off, Tim Vaill told a story about how when they performed in China, a woman was hired to translate what every song was about. Pretty quickly, the group realized she wouldn’t have much work to do, as nearly every song was about love. Later, he would speak of how Paul Anka’s “Diana” was written after Anka’s love of his childhood babysitter.
But not all the information the band gave would hold up under scrutiny, or even a Google search.
Before the group sang “Let’s Lock the Door” by Jay and the Americans, Wellesley’s own David Pratt talked about how Jay and the Americans changed their lead singer from Jay Traynor to a man named David Blatt, but liked the name enough that they asked Blatt if he would go by the name Jay, so he became Jay Black.
“And now, the original Jay’s daughter, Meghan, is a pop star herself” Pratt explained, which drew a smattering of “I didn’t know that’s” from the crowd - until he burst out laughing and explained: “I made that up completely. I’m sorry to have done it in a chamber of knowledge like the library.”
It was abundantly clear that Peking and the Mystics had a great deal of fun throughout the performance. During various songs, members grabbed a woman and slow danced with her, pulled over a chair and sang “Wendy” by The Association to a woman who expressed how much she loved that song, and dropped to the ground and started doing pushups to show how fit they are.
At the end of their performance, the group jogged in a row behind the little half-wall on the side of the room and hid, waiting for the raucous crowd to beg for an encore. Whether it came or not, they jogged back out like it did and performed The Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.”
These shenanigans shouldn’t overshadow the group’s immense talent, however, which is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that they’ve produced four separate albums over the course of their time together.
To quote those over-made “Pitch Perfect” sequels, they were aca-awesome.
