Since the early ’80s, they’ve been like a demented cross between Manhattan Transfer and Monty Python, or Robin Williams and Bobby McFerrin.
The Bobs – none of whom are named Bob – are making a farewell tour performing their brand of madcap a cappella vocal harmony before going their separate ways to pursue other projects.
Bobs member Richard Greene said that the group’s house hunting choices are to blame. He lives in Warrenton, Va., Matthew Stull calls Seattle home, Dan Schumacher has settled in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Angie Doctor resides in San Francisco. “The logistics of getting together to record and rehearse – that’s a lot of effort,” Greene said.
What’s most likely the last Bobs concert in this area – Greene says there are no plans to carry on an endless cycle of farewell tours, as performers of retirement age infamously do – is Oct. 17 at Sellersville Theater. “We’ll be singing everything from the past 35 years. Matthew Stull says there’s 270 songs in our repertoire, and I remember all of them,” he said. That includes everything from unexpected arrangements of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” (for which they received a Grammy nomination) and Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer,” to humorous original compositions about Julia Child, “Spontaneous Human Combustion” and “Synaesthesia.”
Except for when they began as an all-male trio, for much of their history The Bobs have had a woman in the quartet. “The timbre of the thing we were looking for was an alto or a contralto because we’d have a better blend,” he said.
According to Greene, who played in rock bands in the 1970s, touring with little more than “a bagful of microphones” has made performing live refreshingly easy. “That was a very conscious decision from the beginning – maybe because we’re lazy,” he joked.
However, Greene hinted that his fascination with the changing role of the bass in contemporary bluegrass may lead to him picking up an upright bass and joining a band.
The Bobs occasionally broke with a cappella tradition by including instruments on their albums, such as piano accompaniment with their vocal orchestra arrangement of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Over the past decade, the group has done less overdub layering in the studio so their recorded performances will be easier to translate to the stage, Greene said.
IF YOU GO
What: The Bobs’ Farewell Tour.
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 17.Where: Sellersville Theater 1894, 24 W. Temple Ave. and Main Street, Sellersville.
Tickets: $21.50, $29.50.Info.: (215) 257-5808, www.st94.com.
