just strum
September 27th, 2009, 10:36 AM
As in Big Marching Bands.
My wife and I attended our local High School's Marching Band event (Thunder Over Aurora) last night. It rained the entire time, sometimes heavy, and despite having umbrella's, we were soaked.
Despite the weather, the kids did a great job and put on a hell of a performance. Our band opened the show with the National Anthem and then there was a break out of respect for medical reasons (more on that in a moment). Aurora would come back at the end to close the show.
There were six bands that performed and each did one of their halftime shows. Aurora chose their show from when they played at the NFL Hall of Fame Game with Sam from Sam and Dave. They had two guys that did vocals and they had everyone, including the other bands, standing and dancing.
The band that performed before Aurora was sensational - a lot of drums and horns - loud and good. They had a great visual routine and also had the people moving to the music and consisted of 235 band members. As they left the field, the announcer (each school had their own announcer) said "In the Solon High tradition, the rain will stop as we leave the field" - it stopped, but it was after the last band played.
Now the down side. If it wasn't for the High School bands, you would think you were at a Rolling Stone concert. One guy in the stand was administered CPR in the stands, rushed to an ambulance that was parked at the far end of the field, but died before they could leave for the hospital. One kid blacked out due to illness (the flu is sweeping the area) and one kid slipped in the stands and knocked himself out and received a sizable gash across the back of his head.
However, most of the kids were unaware of what was going on and seemed to enjoy themselves despite the crappy weather. Prior to yesterday we were in the midst of a drought having received only 1/8 of our normal rainfall.
My wife and I attended our local High School's Marching Band event (Thunder Over Aurora) last night. It rained the entire time, sometimes heavy, and despite having umbrella's, we were soaked.
Despite the weather, the kids did a great job and put on a hell of a performance. Our band opened the show with the National Anthem and then there was a break out of respect for medical reasons (more on that in a moment). Aurora would come back at the end to close the show.
There were six bands that performed and each did one of their halftime shows. Aurora chose their show from when they played at the NFL Hall of Fame Game with Sam from Sam and Dave. They had two guys that did vocals and they had everyone, including the other bands, standing and dancing.
The band that performed before Aurora was sensational - a lot of drums and horns - loud and good. They had a great visual routine and also had the people moving to the music and consisted of 235 band members. As they left the field, the announcer (each school had their own announcer) said "In the Solon High tradition, the rain will stop as we leave the field" - it stopped, but it was after the last band played.
Now the down side. If it wasn't for the High School bands, you would think you were at a Rolling Stone concert. One guy in the stand was administered CPR in the stands, rushed to an ambulance that was parked at the far end of the field, but died before they could leave for the hospital. One kid blacked out due to illness (the flu is sweeping the area) and one kid slipped in the stands and knocked himself out and received a sizable gash across the back of his head.
However, most of the kids were unaware of what was going on and seemed to enjoy themselves despite the crappy weather. Prior to yesterday we were in the midst of a drought having received only 1/8 of our normal rainfall.