Memorable Halftime Shows

With the impending commencement of college football, I thought this might be a good time to not only remind everyone how to use common sports discussion terms and why marching band is awesome, but to also reminisce about some of the better shows that I got to be a part of.  Sadly, I have had minimal luck finding video of these shows (although I have some on VHS(!) and DVD at home), so while I can link to (some of) the music, you can’t see the marching along with it.  (If someone turns up links, I will be extremely happy to update this.)

2000

Show: Earth, Wind and Fire

Songs: In the Stone/September, SerpentineFire/Rock That, Boogie Wonderland, In the Stone outro

Why it was memorable: My first show!  Eeee!  Actually, it’s fairly unusual to have a “real” show as your first in HMB; Band Day is generally scheduled for the week of Preschool Drills, and so all you have to learn for halftime is (a) the music, (b) where to stand in the block, (c) how do to a TR (to-the-rear, or about-face), and (d) how to split the block for the pom squad feature and then put it back together.   It’s so easy, even high school bands can do it!  (Which is sort of the point…) Given how much time goes into learning or relearning pregame that week (especially the pull-out logo W), it’s not bad planning, because that means halftime takes roughly half an hour of marching rehearsal.  But for my rookie year, Band Day actually wasn’t until the OSU game on October 7^th; we even had our first road trip (and Bow tests!) before that.

(For those of you not in HMB, “Bow tests” are a tradition where on the first full-band road trip, all of the rookies are required, on the bus trip down, to sing Bow Down to Washington mistake-free through whatever sorts of distractions their sections can throw at them (although some sections have had to institute a no-touching rule).  If you mess up or stop prematurely (lying to the testee that they have to start over is completely legit, and something I fell for), you have to start over.  For the record, I took three tries.  Normally these come later in the year, but our first full-band trip was to Oregon the week school started.)

This was an amazing show, though.  The drill certainly didn’t pull any punches, and you can hear the awesome arrangements above.  In fact, this show turned out so well that we wound up doing it again at the Sun Bowl in 2002.  That was one of the few bright spots of the trip.

Show: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass

Songs: Tijuana Taxi, A Taste of Honey, some others, doesn’t really matter

Why it was memorable:  The show itself was fine, although not great.  The only reason this one is on the list is because Brad decided it would be a great idea to add a flower-petal drill ON GAMEDAY MORNING.

Nope nope nope nope nope.

Ideally, you’re not learning ANY show on gameday morning, just polishing.  Worst case, you’re finishing up the last couple charts of the show, which people have at least seen all week, and maybe you’ve gone through them once or twice already.  You’re not actually adding new charts to the middle of the show.  That would be insane.

And yet, that’s exactly what happened.  And not just any old charts.  Oh, no, no, no.  A flower-petal drill is a big, messy, complicated drill that normally takes plenty of practice to get right.  (Essentially, the band forms a big flower, and each marcher in the petals will march toward and away from the center.  When done right, this gives the impression of the petals actually rotating around the center without having to actually rotate them.  (Because that would be, um, really hard.)  But to do this right, you have to know your timings, how far you’re supposed to go in each direction, how fast, stay in the proper position relative to your neighbors, etc.)  And there we were, Saturday morning, spending precious polishing time on a brand-new flower-petal drill.  Yay.

(Yes, we learned it, and yes, the show went fine, and yes, it looked okay on film the next week.  But that’s not the point.  *stomps foot*)

Show: Chicago

Songs: Saturday in the Park, Hard to Say I’mSorry/Get Away, Make Me Smile/Just You ‘n’ Me (and, believe it or not, NOT 25 or 6 to 4.  I think.)

Why it was memorable: Aside from, again, having a fantastic drill and great arrangements (based on great music) (and obviously Brad thought so, since this show was first done a year or two before), it was the show we did at halftime of the Rose Bowl.  ‘Nuff said.

Honorable mention:  The Broadway show, for the Flying Turf incident.

2001

None.  This season was an utter suck-fest, and I feel sorry for everyone who had to live through this as their first year in HMB.

Honorable mention: The Stevie Wonder show, only for being adequate and having a decent arrangement of Sir Duke.  This was also a regular-season show and the Holiday Bowl show, but the less said about that game, the better.  (Cody Pickett is a chicken!)

(On the plus side, the first full band trip was a flight down to ASU that year, so the rookies got to be Bow tested at the hotel, rather than on a bus.  They had it easy.)

2002

Show: Aerosmith

Songs: Dude Looks Like a Lady, Sweet Emotion (?), Walk this Way/Dream On

Why it was memorable: I’m sure the drill was fine (with one exception…).  However, the arrangements  for this show were AMAZING, especially for Walk this Way/Dream On (which then promptly made its way into our stands tunes folder).  And as everyone who’s done band knows, you can tell when the band likes a song because they will play the CRAP out of it.  There’s just an energy level and sharpness to the music you don’t get with songs that the band is less enthused about.

But ultimately, this show is memorable for a less positive reason.  As you can hear in the recording for Walk this Way, there’s a one-bar break in the middle of the song that is completely silent.  It’s an awesome effect, and we were REALLY looking forward to it.

So imagine our dismay when we finally get the charts, and that one bar of silence has been changed to a four-bar drum break.  This is actually the only time I can remember all of the section leaders getting together during rehearsal to discuss something (namely, that this change was a terrible idea, because it was.  And is.  And forever will be).  And then we went to Brad and told him that this change was a terrible idea.  Again, during rehearsal.

Of course, it didn’t actually change anything.  And from a directorial standpoint, I get it; you risk a terribly ragged entrance with the band spread across the field and no timekeeping except the directors for that bar.  But dangit, it would have been AWESOME.

Show: John Williams

Songs: Superman theme, General medley, Star Wars medley

Why it was memorable: Who doesn’t like John Williams?  And Star Wars music?  Those make this memorable all on their own, let alone the drum major lightsaber duel and the diamond drill at the end.  But it was the road trip we took this on that makes this one of the most memorable shows I’ve done.

As most of you are already aware, Oregon fans are widely considered to be boorish, classless nouveau-riche savages with no sense of basic human decency.  (Sorry, friends of mine who went to Oregon; I know you’re nice people, but this is the general perception of Oregon fans across college football, not just the opinion of a snobbish, arrogant, bitter, envious, living-in-the-past Husky fan.) As Exhibit A, I present this fact: they will boo their own marching band.

Let me say that again: Oregon fans will boo THEIR OWN marching band.

So if a fanbase is willing to do that, you can imagine how they’ll treat the marching band of their most hated rival, especially back in 2002 when it was actually a heated rivalry.  I will just say that Autzen is the only stadium I visited where I actually feared for my physical safety.

Anyways, Oregon was our non-Wazzu road trip in 2002.  (Also, can I just note that from 2000 to 2005, the Oregon-UW game was at Autzen 4 times (including 3 of 4 from 2002-2005), with one game at Husky Stadium and one bye?  What exactly was up with that, Pac-10 schedulers?)  And we brought along our John Williams show, because it was awesome.

As expected, we were greeted on the field at halftime with an echoing chorus of boos.  However, as the show went on and the Oregon fans couldn’t help but recognize the awesomeness of what they were seeing, the boos gradually trickled to a halt.  By the end of the show, we were getting some serious cheers.  And not only that; despite the fact that we won by a lot that game (oh, the good ol’ days), several people, myself included, had Oregon fans come up and tell them how much they enjoyed our show.

What do you know?  Oregon fans do have a heart!  It may be 2e2 times too small normally, but it’s in there somewhere.

Honorable mentions: The Vegas show, the Quincy Jones show, the Phil Collins show (I think these were all this year, although a couple could have been the next year.  They're all on the CD for those two years, so that helps narrow it down).  That’s pretty much every show we did this year, excluding Band Day.  This was a GOOD year.  Which it darn well needed to be after the debacle of 2001.

2003

Show: Hooked on Classics

Songs: Fanfare for the Common Man, Sabre Dance, medley (including Toccata and Fugue, Beethoven’s Fifth, the New World Symphony, Rhapsody in Blue, Eine Kline Nachtmusik, William Tell, and the 1812 Overture)

Why it was memorable: In 2001, the Husky Marching Band started a graduate program where fledgling college band directors could come in and get a graduate degree in marching band directing with a lot of hands-on experience.  As their “thesis”, each graduate director had to do both the chart and the arrangements for one show their last year.

Our first graduate assistant, Eric Wiltshire (now the director of the Oregon Marching Band, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!) started in 2001, and graduated in 2003.  This show was his thesis, his showcase.  And it was amazing.  I mean, just look at the songs in the final medley!

And for the first (and only, sadly) time, I actually have available video evidence of its awesomeness.  This is from our road trip to OSU, so it’s missing Sabre Dance for time considerations, but you’ll get the idea.

Eric did a great job with this show.

Honorable mentions: Um, well, that’s really the only show I remember from this year.

2004

Show: Doo-wop

Songs: At the Hop, Doo-wop Medley (including (I don’t remember), Duke of Earl, and The Book of Love), and Blue Moon

Why it was memorable: Chris Chapman was our second graduate assistant, starting in 2002 and graduating in 2004 (he’s now director of bands at Oregon State; our grad assistants are taking over the Northwest!).  In addition to this thesis show, he also did some fantastic arrangements for us, like this version of Radar Love that I’m pretty sure is better than the original.

This drill had just about everything in the first couple of songs, which are fantastic arrangements.   The final song was a surprisingly weak arrangement with a couple of guest singers (including a former Husky football player who happened to be on American Idol) and not much drill, so I’ve always suspected that his hand was forced a bit on that one (I can’t imagine why the Athletic Department might insist we somehow feature a former football player who happened to be on American Idol).  The rest of the show made up for it, though.

Honorable mentions: The 70’s Cop Shows show (which had a car with rotating wheels.  Urg), the Classic Movie Songs show for having such terrible arrangements that I felt compelled to burn one.

Okay, your turn!  Anyone got any memorable shows from those years or others (people older or younger than I am)?  Or from other bands?  This doesn’t have to be an HMB discussion; it can be a general marching band celebration!  I’ll even accept OMB submissions (although I may have to draw the line at the third time Pirates of the Caribbean or Back to the Future gets submitted…).

Go!