photo by Luca DePalo

by Luca DePalo, Contributing Blogger

Straight No Chaser

Stadium Theatre, Woonsocket, RI

June 19, 2026

With summer officially underway, it is the perfect season to start going out to see some outdoor concerts at a nearby amphitheater or stadium. But on a humid Friday night at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, I – and a sold-out crowd – decided to go check out the legendary a cappella group Straight No Chaser as they embark on their “Beach Bash” summer tour.

photo by Luca DePalo

Straight No Chaser (also known as SNC) is a professional American a cappella group formed in 1996 in Bloomington, Indiana. The group’s name was inspired by composer Thelonious Monk’s 1967 record Straight, No Chaser. Although the band has been best known for its iconic covers of songs like “Mary, Did You Know,” “The 12 Days of Christmas,” and “O Holy Night,” they have recorded many successful originals like “The Christmas Can-Can,” “Text Me Merry Christmas,” and “To Christmas (The Drinking Song).”

photo by Luca DePalo

After many lineup changes over the years, the band is currently led by original members Jerome Collins and Walter Chase as tenors and Steve Morgan as a baritone. Other members include Luke Bob Robinson as the group’s bass vocalist, Mike Luginbill as a tenor, Seggie Isho as baritone, Tyler Trepp as a tenor and vocal percussionist, Jasper Smith as a tenor and baritone, and the incredible Freedom Young as a vocal percussionist and a baritone.

Coming into this show was very different from the other artists I have seen live over time. I made sure to come in with no expectations. I had never heard of their covers and had never listened to an original song by them. I didn’t even look at their setlist, which I always do! All the info I had been given was from a family member who had mentioned how they put on a humorous, energetic, and fun concert. And oh man, I was blown away! Throughout the energetic evening, the band covered a variety of songs from the ’60s to now, including a large variety of genres, with one of them being my personal favorite genre, “Yacht Rock.”

photo by Luca DePalo

Just to show how unique the show was, the group opened with a mashup of the famed Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams” with a song that brought me back a decade earlier, “HandClap” by Fitz and The Tantrums. They truly pleased everybody with their first set. A couple of newer songs were sung, such as “Shut Up and Dance,” “Cake By the Ocean,” and the recent Bruno Mars song “I Just Might,” and then famed hits like “Jessie’s Girl,” “Sailing,” “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” and the comedic “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”

After a quick intermission, the group came back in fire! With the feeling of a summer breeze throughout the venue, the band threw out dozens of beach balls and encouraged the audience to rise up from their seats. A few of the many songs included “Lido Shuffle,” “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” “All Night Long (All Night),” “Can’t Stop The Feeling,” and even “No Diggity.”

photo by Luca DePalo

But what shocked me most from the show was what occurred during the encore. With the stage lights lowered and the crowd chanting “One more song,” the group came back with a shocking surprise. Walking to the middle of the stage, the band lined up side-by-side, lowering their microphones, and placing them down on the stage. As the crowd’s noise began to drop, the group kicked into an emotional version of “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley. It’s very rare to go see a band end off with an emotional song, so I didn’t know how to feel about it, but that all changed once I heard the line “I can tell you my love for you will still be strong after the boys of summer have gone.”

I don’t think I will ever forget attending this show. It is my mission to see them again sometime soon. If they end up coming near you, I highly recommend it. Because on that Saturday evening, Straight No Chaser proved to a sold-out crowd that music doesn’t need crazy overproduction or instrumentation; it just needs pure harmonies to refresh ears.