Pep Bands vs. Canned Music at Football Games

[AUPepBand]

Presentation College's real motivation for adding football to its athletic offerings is in bold:

On a beautiful spring morning, Presentation College announced that the school would begin playing football in fall 2011.
"As soon as you've got between 60 and 90 extra young people, there's a lot this college can do," said Hale. "We can get a decent pep band. We can be involved in more community things. We just don't have the numbers here at the moment for that."

[AUPepBand]

Pep has a fever and the only prescription is the start of football season....and a little more cowbell!

[AUPepBand]

Pep is pumped...Band Camp '09 will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 29 at Miller Performing Arts Center on the beautiful Alfred University campus. There, the band will work on developing its repertoire for the 2009 season.

AU Pep Band does not have the luxury of rehearsals through the season. The band arrives at a game, grabs instruments, and "warms up" with the tailgaters, then plays through the game, taking a break at halftime for a hot dog. Thus, the Band Camp is critical for members to learn the music. It appears there are enough to warrant a ROAD TRIP to UMass-Dartmouth Sept. 5 with one of our trumpets the night before hosting us at her home about an hour from the UMass-Dartmouth campus.

Pep can't wait to hear Blitzkrieg Bop, Bang the Drum All Day, Gonna Fly Now, Land of 1,000 Dances, Crunch Time!, Louie-Louie and, of course, the Saxon Fight Song!!

On Saxon Warriors!

[HSCTiger74]

Pep can't wait to hear Blitzkrieg Bop, Bang the Drum All Day, Gonna Fly Now, Land of 1,000 Dances, Crunch Time!, Louie-Louie and, of course, the Saxon Fight Song!!

Heck Pep, I wouldn't mind hearing a pep band version of Blitzkrieg Bop myself.

[Knightstalker]

Hey Pep, need a bass player for your game at FDU Florham Park this year?

[TrickyTroy]

How is the best band in d-III my vote is HSU Cowboy band

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

How is the best band in d-III my vote is HSU Cowboy band

I don't understand your question.

"How"?

Is that one sentence or two?

[AUPepBand]

Hey Pep, need a bass player for your game at FDU Florham Park this year?

Bring it, KS! We welcome anyone who will join us in support of our Saxons!

[AUPepBand]

How is the best band in d-III my vote is HSU Cowboy band

So you're saying that the Hardin-Simmons Cowboy Band is the Best D3 Band in the Land?

Does that make AU Pep Band #2? 

[AUPepBand]

Some reflections on a wet Saturday in Madison, NJ...seems there were some FDU-Florham fans who weren't too pleased that the AU Pep Band made the trip and played at the game. Pep understands. Pep had ill feelings when the Ithaca College Pep Band appeared at Merrill Field and supported the Bombers before AU mustered its own band. Just didn't seem right that the Bombers seemingly had more support (noise) than the home crowd in those days. That certainly contributed to the re-establishment of an AU Pep Band.

Back to FDU, though, according to some members of the band, there were others who were complimentary of the band, its play, and its dedication to the Alfred University football team. Pep is hoping that the band's appearance at Shields Field Saturday would inspire FDU to start a band of its own--rather than have some of its fans direct chants toward the visiting band, "You suck!" Truth be told, it's tough for a musician to get any sound out of an instrument by sucking. 

Pep has been pleased with the cooperation of its hosts to date, allowing the band to play during second half timeouts. It's too chaotic for fans being blasted simultaneously by canned music and a pep band.

[Ron Boerger]

Reason #187 to have a live band at a football game:  the chance to bonk a cameraman who should have known better.

[AUPepBand]

Reason #187 to have a live band at a football game:  the chance to bonk a cameraman who should have known better.

Nice find....AU Pep Band has a freshman sousaphone player who hails from Ohio! Seems she has a twin playing in the Mount Union Marching Band.

Pep knows the AU Pep Band is on the rise when it can successfully recruit a tuba player from Larry Kehres' backyard!!

[Ron Boerger]

Story in last week's Trinity [TX] student paper about getting a band together to support the football team.  What's interesting is the part about the athletic program funding the purchase of instruments.

With ~3000 students and a decent music program, there is certainly potential to support such a group.  There have been bands off and on throughout the years (mostly off) but there's never been sufficient tradition to keep it going.  

[cave2bens]

After last Saturday's live performance via Internet, Wooster's bagpipers and marching band should enter the fray for DIII accolades.  The team, marching downhill enmass, behind the pipes and drums at pregame really stirs the emotions - and their kilted, band "uniforms" make Notre Dame's vaunted, regalia appear comparable to cast offs from Big Lot's. 

Game coverage included the band's halftime show in entirety - a refreshing break from the magpies and dottering ex-coaches monopolizing the air between Billy Mays' retrospectives for Sham-Wow, Oxyclean, and the latest freeway exit, trade school ads.   

Live Music Rules - piped Gary Glitter and Queen should be relegated to neighborhood, garage sales. 

[AUPepBand]

After last Saturday's live performance via Internet, Wooster's bagpipers and marching band should enter the fray for DIII accolades.  The team, marching downhill enmass, behind the pipes and drums at pregame really stirs the emotions - and their kilted, band "uniforms" make Notre Dame's vaunted, regalia appear comparable to cast offs from Big Lot's. 

Game coverage included the band's halftime show in entirety - a refreshing break from the magpies and dottering ex-coaches monopolizing the air between Billy Mays' retrospectives for Sham-Wow, Oxyclean, and the latest freeway exit, trade school ads.   

Live Music Rules - piped Gary Glitter and Queen should be relegated to neighborhood, garage sales. 

And, in its travels, AU Pep Band, competing against the home team's press box DJ, noticed that there are some press box DJs who end their random interjectory pumped-up musical hype with a jolting cut, while others, more refined, bring it in for a landing with a nicely fingered fade.

Pep paid a visit to Wooster pre-season a couple years back and noted the vast seating marked in the stands for the bagpipers and band and imagined they instill a real festive atmosphere to John P. Papp. While there, a physical plant employee told Pep of the bagpipers and band's pre-game rituals. Woo-hoo to Wooster.