When you think of the hardest rockers in the business, you don't tend to look to Croatian cellists. And yet 2CELLOS (Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser) shred through AC/DC and Guns N' Roses covers like seasoned metalheads. The duo keeps two extra bows onstage for every performance, just in case they break mid-song. "It happens pretty frequently, actually, during the song — all the hair would get destroyed, and I'd have to swap the bow really quickly during the performance," Sulic said in a phone interview. "That's really tricky, because it's only the two of us playing all the time. We always have to play." The two earned a cult following after their cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" went viral in 2011, and they've since appeared on "Glee" and "The Tonight Show." Their new album, "Celloverse," comprises symphonic rock, from Rossini to Mumford & Sons. When Sulic and Hauser pick songs to cover, they look for songs that can easily transcend genres. "My favorite arrangements are those where we really can break the boundaries: classical and rock, metal or dance music," Sulic said. "These are all songs we like listening to. We thought we could do something original with them, really create something new, something fresh." For this week's High Five, Sulic shared his top five favorite arrangements to play.
1. "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC: "That's the song that set the concept for the whole album. It took us to a whole other level."
2. "The Trooper Overture" (a reimagining of "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden): "It's kind of a mash-up of classical and metal."
3. "Wake Me Up" by Avicii: "A perfect example of combining two totally different musical styles, classical with electronic dance music."
4. "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson: "It was the arrangement that brought us everything, that got us started."
5. "Shape of myMy Heart" by Sting: "A beautiful slow song that sounds like it was written for the cello . . . a more romantic one."
2CELLOS has canceled a performance at the Berklee Performance Center that was scheduled for May 1 at 8 p.m.
BROOKE JACKSON-GLIDDEN