Trinity’s A Cappella Groups Perform at Annual Halloween Collaboration, Spook-Appella

Hannah Smith ’26

Executive Arts & Entertainment Editor

On the night of Halloween, the Trinity College Chapel was packed for Spook-Appella, the annual Halloween concert featuring all four a cappella groups on campus. The night was filled with some fantastic costumes and even better singing. People crammed into pews so they could experience what would become a great way to kick off Halloween night.

Up first were the Trinitones, who (mostly) came dressed as vampires. They began their set with Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence.” Departing quickly from the spooky Halloween energy, they sang “I’m Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado, featuring solos from this semester’s five new members of the Tones, or “newtons” (all dressed, fittingly enough, as Issac Newton). They finished up with Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time,” an a cappella staple. The Tone’s harmonies blended smoothly, especially with the echoes from the sanctuary from the chapel.

Following the Tones, the Pipes arrived dressed in 1990s garb. They started off their performance with the second Simon & Garfunkel song of the night, “Cecilia.” To get into the Halloween spirit, they switched the lyrics from “Cecilia” to “Dracula,” which aligned a not-so-scary song to the spooky theme. They also kept the energy levels high with some fun choreography. Their final two songs came from two films, “KPop Demon Hunters” and a Disney Channel classic, “Lemonade Mouth.” They sang “Your Idol,” and “Determinate,” both including some wild rap verses by AJ Mitchell ’27 and Cella Huang ’27, respectively.

Then came the Accidentals, who dressed in a variety of costumes, all of which paired with another costume worn by a member of the Quirks. Some of my personal favorites include Mike and Sully from “Monsters Inc.,” a duck and a lemonade stand from the “Duck Song” YouTube video, and the characters played by Pete Davidson and Timothée Chalamet in their now famous “Rap Roundtable” sketch from “Saturday Night Live.” The Dents’ first song was a mashup of “Pompeii” by Bastille and Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” two songs that meshed quite well together. Next was “If I Ever Fall in Love” by Shai, followed by “Maneater” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. I’m not sure if it was the bass singing or their position in the staging area, but the Dents achieved highly impressive echoes with a powerful volume that filled the chapel and made for quite the performance.

Lastly, the Quirks understood the assignment and went full Halloween-themed with their song choices. Up first was “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt Kickers, fulfilling everyone’s requirement to hear the tune at least once on Halloween. They followed that up with the Cranberries’ “Zombie,” executed beautifully by soloist Grace Fangmann ’26. Spook-Appella was wrapped up with “This is Halloween” by Danny Elfman, surely inspiring all in attendance to go home and watch “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”