Story by Doug Carroll
Photos by Darryl Webb
GCU News Bureau
To win GCU’s annual student Lip Sync, it’s not enough anymore to have a cutting-edge look and killer dance moves. That used to be plenty, but no longer.
Promotional skills are now part of the equation, as seen by the winning performance Thursday night of Deep Abyss, a five-member “boy band” that dethroned the defending champions, the Frothy Boyz, before a raucous crowd of about 3,000 at the Arena. With “Neon Phenomenon” as the chosen theme, the music was loud and the clothes even louder for the best Lip Sync yet.
Deep Abyss did more than effectively channel the Backstreet Boys, opening and closing their three-minute segment with the B-Boys hit “I Want It That Way.” The members — all new to Lip Sync — worked campus for support in recent days as if they were President Obama and Mitt Romney. Their Facebook page, created specifically for the occasion, drew more than 160 likes, and they claimed to have a manager and a stylist.
Even their stage names — G, Olympiad, Gator, Mikey Mike and Twizla — were conceived with one thing in mind: winning Lip Sync for the “fans” they effusively praised onstage and after the show. Their backers made themselves heard Thursday night.
“We knew we had to perform for them,” said G, a sophomore. “We tried to make it as much about the fans as we could.”
The Frothy Boyz, whose sharp choreography last year to “Ice Ice Baby” won them campuswide acclaim, brought it strong again with a crisp routine to Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is).” They were second this time, and a “Day in the Life of a ’Lope” medley from the Prescott RAs was third.
“This was awesome, and it’s only going to get better and better,” said senior Trent Bruns, one-third of the Frothies, noting that the night’s 15 acts had been chosen by audition for the first time.
Perhaps owing to that secret first round of competition, this was a much deeper field than it was last year, when Lip Sync moved to the Arena from North Gym. This year, at least two-thirds of the acts were good enough to have placed in the top three.
Other impressive performances came from the GCU cheer team (to C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”, Gangnam Style (to the viral YouTube hit of the same name), the North Rim Apartments Go to Hogwarts (a “Harry Potter” magic theme), the Lope City Chicks (a custom GCU version of Tyga’s “Rack City”), the men’s basketball team (a George Strait and Nelly medley, with African-American cowboys and cornrowed white rappers) and Theme Thing (a blizzard of TV-show theme songs).
Serving as masters of ceremonies were ASGCU President Nick Ely and Canyon Hall resident adviser Liz Baker. The four judges were Campus Music Minister Gabe Salazar, Canyon Hall resident director Chelsea Ellis, Danielle Rinnier of the Office of Spiritual Life and Men’s Soccer Head Coach Petar Draksin.
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