Straight No Chaser Takes A Cappella Out of the Dorms, to the Gusman Center on Friday

A cappella music is a strange thing. It conjures up either images of old-man barbershop quartets, or, more likely, the specter of those over-eager, overly animated dudes on your freshman dorm floor. Yes, these days, single-sex a cappella groups are largely confined to campus life, but every so often, a group manages to break through to the pseudo-mainstream. Among the biggest of these going currently are the California barbershop revivalists the OC Times, and the 10-member Indiana group Straight No Chaser.

Straight No Chaser, or SNC to their acolytes, are slightly past college age, but still young and pretty enough to ensnare hordes of female fans. What also helps is the accessibility of their music, which is about half renditions of standards like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and Christmas carols, and half reworkings of current pop hits. They're not sarcastic or parodic like many college groups, but definitely display a marked sense of humor. Just check the guys' rendition of Flo Rida's "Low," complete with vocalized beat bleeps and bloops. Yes, it comes complete with somewhat cringe-worthy raps, too, but if you don't find that more embarrassing than amusing, you're not this concert's target audience, anyways.