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Tales From the Marching Band Field

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Posts

  • Akilae729Akilae729 Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    big l wrote: »
    Akilae729 wrote: »
    TSR wrote: »
    Akilae729 wrote: »
    Im about to travel to Oregon St. with the SC band to watch the beavers get their asses kicked.

    Trojans!

    Hey, hey. Hey.

    Play that one song.

    You know which one.
    I am making fun of your band because our football team is going to lose terribly

    My guess is that from the time I land in Oregon till the time I leave I'll probably play Tribute about 20,000 - 30,000 times

    Honestly, do you guys get sick of it?

    Not really.

    Its awesome when we are kicking ass, especially at an away game, and we just keep playing it.

    The other teams fans around us get SO heated.

    Whats awesome about going to SC is that everyone else hates you. It was so much fun to get booed at the Cal game last year.

    Akilae729 on
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  • DislexicDislexic Creepy Uncle Bad Touch Your local playgroundRegistered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Is it a universal thing around the country where all percussion sections are potheads? because my dad said that even when he was in high school back in the early 50s, every single person from the percussion section of band was a pothead, and it was like that in my high school

    Dislexic on
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  • Captain KCaptain K Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    I think I should post another fun anecdote here.


    So I marched at The Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps for three years (2001-2003). They used to be known as the Garfield Cadets, and before that the Holy Name Cadets, but nowadays they're just The Cadets. Despite the name changes they still have ties to a lot of the old history.

    One of the living legends in drum corps these days is Marc Sylvester, this totally wacked-out artistic type who, along with George Zingali (an even more wacked-out artistic type who sadly passed away a number of years back) basically invented the marching technique that almost every group uses nowadays: the "roll step" (as opposed to the "bicycle step" which some groups, mainly in the Midwest, still use).

    Anyway, Marc Sylvester (or "Sully" as everybody calls him) is a pretty fucking big deal in the drum corps world, and whenever he showed up on tour everybody would stand up a little straighter because you wanted to represent for the guy who fucking invented marching. You also tightened your asshole a little bit because Sully is a fucking psycho and you don't want to give him a reason to not like you.

    He usually came on tour with one set of clothing and between zero and three personal effects. One season I marched he showed up with a hat, a toothbrush, and a winter blanket, and he usually came to rehearsal wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, with the hat on his head, the toothbrush stuck in his mouth, and the winter blanket wrapped around his body (keep in mind this is the middle of summer and the average temperatures were in the 90s at this point).

    As far as day-to-day survival he would just mooch off everybody in the corps. The instructional staff was not safe and the members were especially not safe. He would generally acquire a full suite of personal effects by wandering around the gym and/or locker rooms and just picking shit up. He wore somebody's flip-flops for a whole week until the poor kid finally summoned up the courage to say "Hey Sully, I think you are wearing my flip-flops."

    Sully just shrugged his shoulders and said "I just found them in the locker room, why didn't you say anything before now?" and gave them back, and then stole somebody else's shoes the next day.


    Everybody's respect for him is well-deserved; the guy's not called a living legend for nothing. When he's around, shit gets cleaned and the corps gets better. But he has a notoriously short fuse when it comes to people fucking around or not paying attention. I wasn't there for it (it happened before my time) but they always told a great story about this kid who kept looking at his watch during a rehearsal when he was supposed to just be holding his horn up. After the third or fourth time the kid had checked his watch Sully finally exploded into the megaphone at him.

    "WHAT TIME IS IT"

    "I don't know!"

    "HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW! YOU KEEP LOOKING AT YOUR FUCKING WATCH"

    "It's broken!"

    "WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!?"

    "I DON'T KNOW!"

    The poor kid had to spend the rest of the three-hour rehearsal running laps around the outside of the field yelling "I DON'T KNOW!" at the top of his lungs. Everybody else in the corps was smart enough to keep their mouths shut for the rest of that day. :P




    (there's so many other Sully stories I don't even know where I'd begin telling the rest of them, but if any more good ones occur to me I'll post them here)

    Captain K on
  • Captain KCaptain K Registered User regular
    edited October 2008
    So this guy Dave Millen who marched at Cadets (before my time) was a total legend. He did some of the most ridiculous shit during his time in the corps (I think he marched from 1996-2000). He was well known for waiting until everyone on the brass bus was asleep and then picking some poor soul at random; he would run up to their bus seat and just climb on top of them and start humping their body and yelling "JUST TAKE WHAT THE GOOD LORD GIVES YOU"


    The best story I ever heard about Dave Millen came from one of his early years in the corps. It was late in the drum corps season and the Cadets were saying at a high school that was running a summer school session, so there were tons of high school kids all over the place. The corps had been told to stay away from the actual high school during the day.

    During the corps' lunch break, Dave went and changed into some nice clothes--tennis shoes, jeans, a polo shirt--and went into the school. He was wandering the halls and a teacher accosted him, asking him why he was in the halls. He said he was new to the school and didn't know where to go. The teacher didn't buy it, and asked Dave for his hall pass. He said he didn't have one, and the teacher sent him to the office. He ended up being assigned detention.

    In the end, he made it to the next corps rehearsal on time with a detention slip to show everyone. He accomplished all this in a 45-minute lunch break.


    fucking legendary

    Captain K on
  • OrikaeshigitaeOrikaeshigitae Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited October 2008
    hey k, look what i found from days of yore


    kismodding.jpg

    Orikaeshigitae on
  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    edited October 2008
    Captain K wrote: »
    "WHAT TIME IS IT"

    "I don't know!"

    "HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW! YOU KEEP LOOKING AT YOUR FUCKING WATCH"

    "It's broken!"

    "WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!?"

    "I DON'T KNOW!"
    Ahahahaha

    SirToasty on
  • SceptreSceptre Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I marched Vanguard Cadets in 2008, and during rookie talent night, there was a guy who drank his own urine.

    Needless to say, he won.

    Sceptre on
  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Our tenor player is trying out for the Santa Clara Vanguard sometime in the near future. He's pretty damn good. He can be a real asshole though and sometimes doesn't take too well to authority when the authority is a peer. He and the dline captain are tighter than a virgin on snares.

    SirToasty on
  • Lord DaveLord Dave Grief Causer Bitch Free ZoneRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    every section but the trombone sections sucks and/or is full of jerks

    except maybe the saxes

    and the tubas, but they have fatties

    Lord Dave on
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  • SceptreSceptre Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Lord Dave wrote: »
    every section but the trombone sections sucks and/or is full of jerks

    except maybe the saxes

    and the tubas, but they have fatties

    I resent that statement.


    Fatty.

    Sceptre on
  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Lord Dave wrote: »
    every section but the trombone sections sucks and/or is full of jerks

    except maybe the saxes

    and the tubas, but they have fatties
    Fuck yeah saxes. We have the best freakin' sax section.

    SirToasty on
  • Lord DaveLord Dave Grief Causer Bitch Free ZoneRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'm not sure why it is that the trombones and the saxes always seem to have a similar ethos

    Lord Dave on
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  • NogsNogs Crap, crap, mega crap. Crap, crap, mega crap.Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    the dorky little harry potter with red-hair kid got a hand job at a hotel hot tub one year by a short fat clarinet player. that was a pretty big deal at the time.

    Nogs on
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  • The Otaku SuppositoryThe Otaku Suppository Bawstan New EnglandRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Lord Dave wrote: »
    I'm not sure why it is that the trombones and the saxes always seem to have a similar ethos

    Both sections hate the trumpets.

    Little cocky bastards. Every last one of them.

    The Otaku Suppository on
  • Uncle LongUncle Long Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Man, I played the mellophone and then I was the Drum Major.

    I felt so alone. I did end up sleeping with a couple of the flaggots freshman and sophomore year though, so...

    Uncle Long on
  • SceptreSceptre Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    At least trumpets aren't as bad as Mellophones.

    Eugh.

    Mellophone players :D

    Sceptre on
  • UltimatePineappleUltimatePineapple Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    SirToasty wrote: »
    At one competition 2 years ago, one of our trombone players whom everyone hated slipped in a mudhole on the incredibly shitty field and smeared up his nice white uniform and hurt his leg. One other trombone player laughed aloud while playing resulting in a splat and a clarinet player put her clarinet down and bent over laughing at him in the middle of the performance.

    We got a Superior.

    edit: That's a good thing, right K?

    That was the best day ever. God, I hated that guy.

    UltimatePineapple on
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  • Lord DaveLord Dave Grief Causer Bitch Free ZoneRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Lord Dave wrote: »
    I'm not sure why it is that the trombones and the saxes always seem to have a similar ethos

    Both sections hate the trumpets.

    Little cocky bastards. Every last one of them.

    I thought everybody hated the trumpets.
    I was almost a trumpet. Thank god for my ridiculous front teeth. It is weird to think how drastically different my life would have been if I hadn't been a boner.

    Lord Dave on
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  • The Otaku SuppositoryThe Otaku Suppository Bawstan New EnglandRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Lord Dave wrote: »
    Lord Dave wrote: »
    I'm not sure why it is that the trombones and the saxes always seem to have a similar ethos

    Both sections hate the trumpets.

    Little cocky bastards. Every last one of them.

    I thought everybody hated the trumpets.
    I was almost a trumpet. Thank god for my ridiculous front teeth. It is weird to think how drastically different my life would have been if I hadn't been a boner.

    Sir! A message from Batman!

    The Otaku Suppository on
  • ani_game_bumani_game_bum Optimistic, Rule-Breaking Nice Guy The Final World/DestinationRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    High school freshman year my band was on its way to our first competition of the season when out of the blue the U-Haul type truck that we used to transport most of our instruments and gear caught on fire (the engine). I remember my bus parked in an adjacent lot and seeing the parents literally throwing all the stuff out the back of the truck.

    We made it to our competition, all instruments and stuff intact. We placed 1st and swept all the captions that night.

    Moments like that during my 4-year stint made me a marching band fan for fucking life.

    ani_game_bum on
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  • ani_game_bumani_game_bum Optimistic, Rule-Breaking Nice Guy The Final World/DestinationRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    On a related note, here's a band that performed music from Final Fantasy 7 in 2007:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAOzN2N6Sg

    The same band's 2008 show also featured Aerith's Theme as their middle movement.

    Awesome.

    ani_game_bum on
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  • laughingfuzzballlaughingfuzzball Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Even the mellophonists hate the mellophone.

    We'd all much rather be playing the horn.

    laughingfuzzball on
  • KazhiimKazhiim __BANNED USERS regular
    edited November 2008
    Maybe you all just need to mello out.

    Kazhiim on
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  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I played the Tuba/Susaphone for 8 years. 8 fucking years. I didn't even want to, I wanted to play the Trombone. But my band teacher was like "Oh hey, fat kid, we need a tuba player, its fat, your fat, perfect combo!"

    Stupid bitch. Oh well, I still know how to play Louie Louie by heart.

    Bucketman on
  • Garlic BreadGarlic Bread i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a Registered User, Disagreeable regular
    edited November 2008
    i played piano in fourth grade, then we moved and my new school didn't give lessons

    once i got to my public high school i played clarinet for like four months and then one day just hated them, so i played baritone horn instead

    senior year i taught myself trombone but i've forgotten it since.

    Garlic Bread on
  • Uncle LongUncle Long Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Even the mellophonists hate the mellophone.

    We'd all much rather be playing the horn.

    Yeah, pretty much.

    Uncle Long on
  • MarcusMarcus Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I marched drum corps for three years, and in 2006 we had this kid in the baritone line who could not stop fucking up. Stepping off at the wrong times, no dynamics, wrong notes, just fucking awful. But whenever staff said something to him he would just start apologizing before they could even say what it was exactly that he did wrong, so he never got any better. So the other section leaders and I, we need to fix this, because staff should not have to deal with shit like this.

    So one day this kid wakes up, and he goes to breakfast, and he says to another baritone, "Hey what are we..." And the other baritone interrupts "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" And the awful kid turns to me and says "Whats up with..." and I interrupt with "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" The kid just backs away goes back into the gym, up to his section leader and says, "Hey man they keep..." "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!"
    We kept it up for two whole days before he figured out to keep his mouth shut when staff was talking to him. Two whole days of not being able to say anything without getting cut off by "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY"

    Marcus on
  • KhavallKhavall British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Even the mellophonists hate the mellophone.

    We'd all much rather be playing the horn.

    Well if the Mello wasn't fingered like some sort of retard instrument so anyone with the ability to move their fingers could fucking play everything fine and the instrument wasn't boring as hell it might be better.


    Our mellos were great. My freshman year our rank leader had strict guidelines about doing any sort of work above playing our parts right and marching right. None of that namby-pamby flute shit where you run everything back and practice shit or have rank t-shirts that are just an excuse to wear white "flute power" shirts in the rain. Not that anyone minded when they did that. We were ok with flutists just being outrageous sluts. If you were caught doing any of these things, you'd fail inspection and lose your third quarter break for the game.

    Our next rank leader was some sort of mystical goddess of titty twisters. You could be doing a massive super-disorganized float somewhere and while playing she could still nail you perfectly. She upheld the rules put in place. Also randomly would grab crotches. Sometimes for inspection. Not like a sack-tap thing. Just to play with them I guess.

    Our next rank leader just graduated Cinci conservatory in Horn Performance. Dude could play like nobodies business and gave us rank challenges like during Stars and Stripes forever, some of us would take the pic solo, some the bone solo, and the stupid lame ones who couldn't play either of those would continue to play the horn part. Yes in the right octaves by the way.

    I was rank leader next.

    Then once I graduated we had some stupid girls who follow the rules of the band and encourage the rank to actually do work and shit. Fucking Losers.

    Khavall on
  • SceptreSceptre Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Marcus wrote: »
    I marched drum corps for three years, and in 2006 we had this kid in the baritone line who could not stop fucking up. Stepping off at the wrong times, no dynamics, wrong notes, just fucking awful. But whenever staff said something to him he would just start apologizing before they could even say what it was exactly that he did wrong, so he never got any better. So the other section leaders and I, we need to fix this, because staff should not have to deal with shit like this.

    So one day this kid wakes up, and he goes to breakfast, and he says to another baritone, "Hey what are we..." And the other baritone interrupts "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" And the awful kid turns to me and says "Whats up with..." and I interrupt with "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" The kid just backs away goes back into the gym, up to his section leader and says, "Hey man they keep..." "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!"
    We kept it up for two whole days before he figured out to keep his mouth shut when staff was talking to him. Two whole days of not being able to say anything without getting cut off by "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY"

    Who did you march with?

    Sceptre on
  • HomelessHomeless Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    one of my good friends is in the university marching band

    i never got to be in the real band in high school

    i'm a guitarist, so i got to be in the jazz band, which was before school at 6:30 in the morning

    still tons of fun though.

    Homeless on
  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Marcus wrote: »
    I marched drum corps for three years, and in 2006 we had this kid in the baritone line who could not stop fucking up. Stepping off at the wrong times, no dynamics, wrong notes, just fucking awful. But whenever staff said something to him he would just start apologizing before they could even say what it was exactly that he did wrong, so he never got any better. So the other section leaders and I, we need to fix this, because staff should not have to deal with shit like this.

    So one day this kid wakes up, and he goes to breakfast, and he says to another baritone, "Hey what are we..." And the other baritone interrupts "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" And the awful kid turns to me and says "Whats up with..." and I interrupt with "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" The kid just backs away goes back into the gym, up to his section leader and says, "Hey man they keep..." "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!"
    We kept it up for two whole days before he figured out to keep his mouth shut when staff was talking to him. Two whole days of not being able to say anything without getting cut off by "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY"
    That is incredible.

    SirToasty on
  • MarcusMarcus Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Sceptre wrote: »
    Marcus wrote: »
    "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY"

    Who did you march with?

    I marched with the Spartans, a Division II (now open class) corps.

    One time the contra section, myself included, was pushing our three story scaffolding to the field so our Drum major and staff could stand on it and yell/teach at us. We get about halfway there and all of a sudden it gets stuck on something. We look all around the wheels and we can't fucking figure out what it is stuck on, except maybe it sunk in the ground a little bit? Who knows, just push!

    As the thing collapses around us in a metal rain of death, we look up to try and dodge the pieces that are still plummeting towards us. That is when we see the power lines.

    Marcus on
  • CrayolaCrayola Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Guys

    I'm in the Wisconsin Marching Band. The one you might know from making the news because we got suspended because of our crazy antics?

    Oh yes. The stories I have.

    Look we even have whiny, butthurt parents getting us in trouble because they are SOOOOO OMG offended.

    Crayola on
  • KhavallKhavall British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Crayola wrote: »
    Guys

    I'm in the Wisconsin Marching Band. The one you might know from making the news because we got suspended because of our crazy antics?

    Oh yes. The stories I have.

    Look we even have whiny, butthurt parents getting us in trouble because they are SOOOOO OMG offended.

    My favorite thing is that the letter they quote from the one parent whose all like "THEY MADE HIM DRINK ALCOHOL".


    Yeah. I'm sure that is the most depraved thing going on.

    Also give us all the gory details. Since obviously you will win the story-off.

    Khavall on
  • nevilleneville The Worst Gay (Seriously. The Worst!)Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Too many fucking drummers in here.

    Saxophonists line up and represent

    But no trumpets. Fuck those guys.

    fuck yeah
    sax love, baby!

    neville on
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