Airbands, 2006: Lambda Chi Alpha In Sync with Crowd

By Thomas Paone

“Airbands” is an annual lip synching contest organized during Greek Week in which many sororities and fraternities compete to see who is the best. Each group is expected to lip sync, as well as put on some other sort of choreographed act. Although the sororities and fraternities, well, fraternity, did a good job this year, Airbands as a whole was somewhat lacking.
First of all, the event was clearly not very well planned. It was scheduled for a week after everyone returned from Spring Break. As a result, it could be clearly seen that many groups had to cut their performances down or simplify their choreography in order to have enough time to practice and compete. The event was also not advertised very well. This could also be seen by the fact that the ballroom, which was very much full last year, was only about 1/3 or 1/2 full this year, counting those who were sitting in the audience before their acts. Finally, the overall lack of a program created some confusion as to the order in which the groups were performing.

Even with the problems with planning, all of the participants did a pretty good job. Although some groups seemed to have very short performances, there were several that stood out. The first to stand out were the Gamma Phi underclassmen, who performed a routine that was oddly reminiscent of the movie “Mean Girls.” Although the performance was not original, it did draw many laughs from the audience, and did follow the movie very well – or so I’ve been told. The next performance that seemed to stand out was that of the Tri Sigma Seniors, who performed to numerous nostalgic songs and commercials that everyone in the audience remembered. These songs included the theme from Saved by the Bell, an old school Almond Joy commercial, the theme song to the popular Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, as well as a Mentos commercial and the theme from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. All of the performances to these songs involved plenty of costume changes and props, showing a lot of thought and creativity.

The next memorable performance was that of the Alpha Delta Pi Seniors, which involved numerous songs from the musical/movie “Chicago.” The girls were very well coordinated and had matching costumes. All the girls were also very coordinated when it came to lip synching the numerous songs that were used. The choice of these songs also showed great creativity since Alpha Delta Pi was the only group to use songs from Broadway for their act. This allowed them to stand out from all the rest.

The next memorable performance was that of the Tri Sigma underclassmen, who performed to a medley of summer songs. The performance was very well choreographed and featured very good lip-synching. The Tri-Sigma underclassmen also used a medley of props, which helped make their performance stand out. The songs they chose were put together very well, allowing their performance to flow from one to the next with ease. A large sailboat at the end also helped grab the attention of the audience.

Finally, the last performance from a sorority to stand out was that of Sigma Gamma Rho. They began their performance with a skit. It allowed them to slow the pace of the show so that everyone would have a chance to see them. They also had an original approach when it came to their performance, featuring a choreographed “cane dance” instead of a normal dance performance. This allowed their performance to stand out from others.

The only fraternity that actually performed this year was Lambda Chi. They performed to a popular pop song from the band N’Sync, which was very well done. Their choreography and lip synching was superb, and their performance was very athletic. They truly played the crowd and put on a good show.

In the end, Lambda Chi would take home the top prize for the fraternities, and the sorority top honors went to:

3rd: Alpha Delta Pi Seniors
2nd: Tri Sigma Seniors
1st: Sigma Gamma Rho

Although Airbands was clearly not very well planned this year, numerous groups were still able to perform with zeal and put on a good show.