| “ |
Kill or be killed. |
” |
—Vocal Adrenaline's motto as said by Kurt | ||
Vocal Adrenaline is the show choir at Carmel High, and they were the arch rivals of the New Directions, especially during the first three seasons. They first appeared in Pilot, the first episode of Season One.
History
Season One
Vocal Adrenaline are first seen in Pilot, performing Rehab and intimidating New Directions. This sparks a rivalry between the two show choirs. They are again seen when New Directions visit their school in order to hire Dakota Stanley. It is shown they practice very hard and cannot stop or leave no matter what. They go on to perform a very polished version of Mercy which Dakota claims is horrible.
In Hell-O, Rachel starts dating Vocal Adrenaline lead Jesse St. James which concerns Will. He visits Carmel High to see a performance of Highway to Hell which is well choreographed and even features fire. Their new director - Shelby Corcoran, tells the show choir to take a break where she meets Will and they proceed to make out. It is later seen she has put Jesse up to dating Rachel.
In The Power of Madonna, Jesse transfers out of Vocal Adrenaline and joins the New Directions under Shelby's orders. In Theatricality they are seen rehearsing intensely to a Lady Gaga number in full costume which involves theatricality. Shelby explains to them it can be subtley done and performs Funny Girl to the choir.
In Funk the rivalry between the two choirs comes to a head after Jesse transfers back to the club and they perform an impressive rendition of Another One Bites the Dust which leaves the New Directions all feeling low. After the performance, New Directions discovers that Vocal Adrenaline also toilet papered the choir room to further intimidate them before Regionals. They later egg Rachel in the car park, with Jesse betraying her for the club. This prompts New Directions to perform Give Up the Funk to show Vocal Adrenaline that they are not defeated by their bullying. Vocal Adrenaline is stunned by their ability to perform a funk number, and they become depressed, as funk is their only weakness; Giselle admitting that they're "soulless automatons."
They compete against New Directions and Aural Intensity at the Regionals, performing Bohemian Rhapsody which the judges enjoy. They are awarded first place and are last seen cheering as they are handed the trophy.
Season Two
After New Directions fails at recruiting Sunshine Corazon, an aspiring singer due to Rachel sending her to a crackhouse instead of the audition, Sue Sylvester informs Vocal Adrenaline's new coach, Dustin Goolsby, about her. Dustin is quick to win Sunshine over, giving Sunshine's mom a green card and condo. In "Comeback," Mr. Schuester announces the competitors for Regionals and Vocal Adrenaline isn't on it. Vocal Adrenaline would be aided by the League of Doom headed by Sue Sylvester to enable them to gain advantage over the New Directions at the Nationals.
In New York, they performed As Long as You're There, with Sunshine leading them, as their bid for the Nationals. They made it to the Top 10 and will move on the next round. However, the result for this season's Nationals is not revealed.
Vocal Adrenaline did not appear in Season Two besides from New York. Although, Sunshine and Dustin appeared for at least 3 episodes: Audition, A Night of Neglect and New York.
This season did not focused on the rivalry of VA and the New Directions as much as the previous one. It is evident by the lesser screen time they got, the songs they sang (only one) and lesser appearances of Sunshine and Dustin than what have been expected in the season premiere.
Season Three
In I Am Unicorn, it's revealed Vocal Adrenaline placed second at 2011 Nationals, that Dustin Goolsby was fired and that they are struggling to find a new coach.
In Saturday Night Glee-ver, it's revealed that Jesse St. James is the new head coach of Vocal Adrenaline and Unique is the lead vocalist. Unique seeks Mercedes and Kurt for help as she wants to perform at their Regionals, dressing in traditional feminine clothes and a wig. She explains that she feels like Unique is her real self. Sue later knows that Mercedes and Kurt were talking to Unique and tells them to give high heels to encourage Unique to dance in them on stage and Vocal Adrenaline will lose. At Vocal Adrenaline's Regionals, Mercedes and Kurt attend to try and unsuccessfully persuade Unique to not go on stage presenting femininely. Jesse finds Mercedes and Kurt talking to her and drags both of them out as they complain their Unique's friends. Jesse says "more the reason to fire him after the show," as the two culture makers look in shock.
While, on the stage, Vocal Adrenaline begins to perform their Regionals number Boogie Shoes. It seems that Vocal Adrenaline's members have decreased. As soon as Jesse sees Unique wearing heels, a dress, and a wig, he hurriedly tries to tell Unique to get off the stage but the crowd begins to enjoy the performance, including Mercedes and Kurt. Later at the lockers, Mercedes and Kurt are talking about how unbelievable the performance was and that Vocal Adrenaline won. Meaning that New Directions are competing with them at Nationals.
In Nationals, Vocal Adrenaline performed Starships and Pinball Wizard in 2012 Show Choir National Championship. Jesse said to Rachel before the competition that if Vocal Adrenaline gets 2nd place or lower, it would end. They got the second place, and Jesse was possibly fired after the Nationals.
Season Four
Wade leaves Vocal Adrenaline and joins New Directions. Despite being mentioned, they don't appear at all this season, marking the first and only season this happens.
Season Five
In Love, Love, Love, they first appear, along with the Haverbrook Choir and the Warblers, during Help! when asked by New Directions to help Blaine propose marriage to Kurt. All four choirs are later seen singing/signing All You Need Is Love during the surprise marriage proposal. After this, Will didn't confirm Vocal Adrenaline at Nationals, possibly meaning they lost Regionals. Will mentioned New Directions would face Throat Explosion instead of them.
In New Directions, Sue reveals she got Will an interview at Carmel High for the position of Glee Club director for Vocal Adrenaline. However, it is seen in Opening Night, that Will still works at McKinley, suggesting that he never went to the interview or he didn't get the job.
Season Six
Sometime between 2013 and 2014, before a new school year begun, Will was hired as the new director of Vocal Adrenaline. In this episode, a new leader is seen, whose name is Clint, leading an excellent performance of Dance the Night Away. As soon as the performance ends, he tells his students that if anyone has a problem, they should go talk to him, but none of the students pays any attention to him, and simply go away, leaving Will with a sad look on his face, probably realizing that Vocal Adrenaline is not the same as New Directions. Will also comments that he earns five times more than what he was earning back at McKinley, and that the money is neccesary to him, since he and his wife have to take care of their infant child, Daniel.
In The Hurt Locker, Part One, Sue invites the team to compete against the Warblers cochedd by Blaine and the New Directions coached by Rachel and Kurt. When the team comes to Mckinley Rachel asks Will if he can go easy on them as it's only their firsts week restarting glee club and as it's New Directions first competitonss. Will agrees to make it fair for them but when Sam shows up at his house trying to ruin Will's life after being hypnotised by Sue, Will decides to fight for real and not to hold anything back. As Vocal Adrenaline is about to perofrm their set for the competion he tries to channel for team spirit by making a speech but the glee club's member don't seem to care about what their coach is saying at all. Vocal Adrenaline performs Rock Lobster and Whip It in front of The Warblers and the New Directions being astonished and itimidatedd by how good their setlist is. Sue and Becky (who's wearing a lobster costume) watch the team from the principal office pleased that their plan is going well.
The group appears again in The Hurt Locker, Part Two, they sit in the auditorium to watch the Warblers perform, then the next day New Direction's performance. When Sue declares the winners Clint and the rest of the club are furious not to have won 1st place as Sue gave them the 2nd place trophy, they blame Will for the loss and tell him that he isn't good enough to teach Vocal Adrenaline.
In Transitioning, the group is responsible for the egging of Rachel and Blaine as well as vandalizing Coach Beiste's car. They are revealed to be arrogant, intolerant bullies (Clint moreso than the rest of the group) who believe winning is the only thing that is important. Despite Will's best efforts (including bringing former VA alum Unique) to teach them about tolerance, his frustration with them drives him to his breaking point resulting in him quitting as their coach and returning to McKinley to help Kurt and Rachel with New Directions.
Known Members
Songs Performed
Season One
| Song | Episode | Solos |
|---|---|---|
| Rehab | Pilot | Giselle |
| Mercy | Acafellas | |
| Highway to Hell | Hell-O | Jesse |
| Burning Up ‡ | The Power of Madonna | |
| Another One Bites the Dust | Funk | |
| Bohemian Rhapsody | Journey |
- ‡ denotes that the song was cut from the episode.
Season Two
| Song | Episode | Solos |
|---|---|---|
| As Long as You're There | New York | Sunshine |
Season Three
| Song | Episode | Solos |
|---|---|---|
| Boogie Shoes | Saturday Night Glee-ver | Unique |
| Starships | Nationals | |
| Pinball Wizard |
Season Five
| Song | Episode | Solos |
|---|---|---|
| Help! | Love, Love, Love | None. Perfomed with New Directions, Dalton Academy Warblers and Haverbrook School for the Deaf |
| All You Need Is Love |
Season Six
Competition Setlists
Trivia
- Vocal Adrenaline always appeared to be larger and more professional than New Directions. This was the case until Season Three.
- They are most often seen wearing some combination of blue and black outfits.
- Unlike New Directions, they are very popular in their school, and they never got bullied or slushied by jocks.
- Their performing style is to choose their best performer and revolve the whole performance around them. It is evident in their performances because Jesse, Sunshine, Unique, and Clint take the lead and everybody seems to be just on supporting roles.
- Vocal Adrenaline is one of three show choirs other than New Directions to appear on a Glee album, along with the Jane Addams Academy and the Dalton Academy Warblers.
- Three of their four coaches had a relationship with Rachel: Shelby was Rachel's mom, Will was Rachel's teacher and Jesse was Rachel's boyfriend.
- According to Shelby in Funk, the club has an extremely large booster club, whose funds even allowed Shelby to buy every member a Range Rover as a gift for their Sectionals victory.
- Vocal Adrenaline are well known for their extremely competitive nature and outrageous methods to gain an advantage.
- They rehearse every single day from 2:30 to midnight.
- They practice for 24 hours before a competition, especially for Nationals.
- No one is allowed to leave for any reason (no water, breaks, bathroom, or excuses), including heat exhaustion or Crohn's disease.
- Their dancers are given human growth hormone.
- Interestingly, they have never been punished or disqualified despite the Dalton Academy Warblers getting disqualified in Season Four for using steroids.
- They use spotlights so bright they are required to wear sunblock on stage.
- They went as far as to fail a student for six years in a row to keep him in the club, simply because of his ability to do triple backflips.
- They are given IV drips before major competitions (particularly Nationals).
- According to Jesse, when a member of Vocal Adrenaline dies during a number they use their body as a prop.
- They gave Sunshine and her mom green cards and a condo so that she would join them.
- In New York, Sunshine even considered returning back home to the Philippines just to leave Vocal Adrenaline.
- Despite their great skill, they're said to not be very emotional, and at the end of Funk, Giselle refers to them as "soulless automatons." This is apparently why they cannot do funk numbers: they cannot manifest the required emotion.
- As of New York, they had yet to lose a competition for five years. However, it is revealed in I Am Unicorn that they came in second place instead of first, therefore leading to Dustin Goolsby getting fired.
- Nationals is the first episode we see them perform more than one number in a competition.
- Some of the people who portray the members of Vocal Adrenaline have been recast as students at McKinley (some as cheerios) or other competitive choirs.
- All three former lead singers, Jesse, Sunshine and Unique have been part of New Directions at one point in the series.
- Unique, however, was the only one to join New Directions on a permanent basis.
- Season Four is the only season in which they don't appear at all.
Gallery
Videos
thumb|left|300px|Mercy