The stage was set with two chairs, two guitars, and a piano. The audience was ready to be entertained, and entertained they were, but perhaps for a little too long.

The Songwriting Showcase Sunday night highlighted the talents of 12 songwriters in a crowded Fe Bland Forum.

All students are part of Professor John Clark’s songwriting class at City College and the showcase gives students a chance to perform their songs in a live setting and also provides incentive for students to write well.

“Not everyone in the class performs. Only those who want to,” Clark said,

Clark briefly spoke to the audience at the beginning to preface the show, but it would have been nice to hear him use the microphone to introduce the performers more formally. However, he and his students presented themselves, as one would imagine they would during a class.

The first performer was Lindsey Waldron. She gave a quick hello to the audience, and went on to play a song entitled “Run,” with thoughtful lyrics and rhythmic verses.

The show was diverse in its demonstration of the talent in the songwriting class. Each student sang two to four songs, but the showcase should have been kept to an hour at most, with each performer limited to one or two songs.

No formal dress was used, and only three students gave their full names as well as the names of their songs. The singers were very well rehearsed even though it seemed that there had not been much in the way of a dress rehearsal.

Brothers Elijah and Lev Allan-Blitz had the most energy of the night. Elijah put his arm around his brother and asked the audience to sing along for their last song “A Little More Love.”

Brittany Batastini brought saxophonist Matthew Boyle to the stage to accompany her soulful and passionate song “Makin’ Me Mad.” Her hands drove powerful chords from the piano, as she and Boyle answered each other’s melodies line for line in a chilling duet.

Spencer Vincent came on stage with fast rhymes and rhythmic strumming in his song “Why So Much Hate.” His verses were poetic with lyrics like “the karma of a kiss and the karma of a kill.”

The audience seemed to take a hint from the casual nature of the concert. More than 100 people, mostly friends and family, showed up at the start, but started leaving in between songs about half way through the show. This was disappointing for the last singers, who had less than half of the crowd left to sing to.

The last performer of the evening was Gabe Hollis. Though much of the audience had left by the time he took the stage, he sang confidently, with a jovial spirit and a bit of self-depreciating humor. This humor manifested itself in his songs as he lamented a breakup with his love of McDonald’s in “I’m Not Lovin’ It.”

Clark appeared on stage again, just before Hollis ended the night, to thank everyone for coming and for being so patient.

The class performs three or four times each semester, so there will be more chances to attend a showcase later in the year.

Hopefully the next will be a little shorter, but the talent will remain as entertaining and diverse.