Now that that's out of the way... the title's from a verse in a song the band sings often in regards to Lafayette:
Oh the freshmen have no band at Lafayette
(Lafay-WHAT??)
Oh the freshmen have no band at Lafayette
(Lafay-band?)
Oh the freshmen have no band
So they do their drills by hand
Oh the freshmen have no band at Lafayette!
--
So today was the Lehigh-Laf game. We won. I now have a very strong dislike for Lafayette. But I digress. Let's start from the beginning.
Today's call time was 7:30a at ZAC. We had morning practice and then went back to the loft to get dressed, relax, and eat sammiches. When we went out to the practice field, the grass was literally WHITE. Why? Because there was FROST on the GRASS. Everyone thought it was SOOO funny when I asked them what was wrong with the grass. (It was about 30 degrees this morning at practice :/)
Anyway, so we ate sammiches and what-not. Got dressed, and boarded the buses. We had nice temperature-controlled Coach buses which was awesome. So on the way to the game, one of the Execs on the bus stood up and gave a little warning. He said that a lot of the tailgaters we go through will be drunk and to kind of ignore them. On the Lafayette side especially, they may do stupid things and to not react. Things may be thrown at us if they get mad enough, so we had to be on fairly decent behavior.
If you look at pictures of our band, we have birds in our shakos...this week we didn't wear our birds because Suits was worried that the tailgaters would rip them out of our shakos. When we marched, we got yelled at by Lafayette tailgaters. I almost expected them to actually throw something (other than insults and middle fingers) at us. They did, kind of. They threw slices of cheese at us. :/ Could be worse, but I expected something a bit more...dramatic than that.
Anyway, so after marching around, we go into the stadium intending to go and sit down...and find a five-ish-row portable bleacher waiting for us. We have 90 people plus big instruments. It wasn't very fun. They said, though, that Lehigh Athletics put it together for us and that though we told them that we had 100 people, Athletics KNEW that we needed space for 150.
(Do you think 97 people can fit on that thing? Factoring in instruments...150? Hmm...Can we say 'Fail'?)
Apparently it always happens like this. But, moving on...
So our show takes about 6-9 minutes, depending. That is, we play Living on a Prayer, Any Way You Want It, take about half a minute to go to the box, do Marching Lehigh, then drain. Lafayette gave us 5 minutes. But that's not the worst thing! So halftime starts and we go down to the field to set up...then the Lafayette Step Team and the Cheerleaders do their weird little dance thing. Then Lafayette's Pep Band meanders on to the field and plays...twice as long as they were supposed to. We were supposed to start at 9 minutes left on the clock...we probably started around 6. :( So we had to raise the tempo of the songs to meet the time limit and we skipped Marching Lehigh and drained straight from the box. It sucked a lot but more so for the seniors, 'cause it was their last game. (We ended up doing Marching Lehigh behind the bleachers near the Port-o-Potties ;) )
The bad thing, too, was that when we were standing on the side of the field while waiting to set up the Lafayette side was jeering at us.
"If you went to Lafayette you'd know how to read music!" "If you went to Lafayette you'd be smart enough to read your music!" (I didn't say it really made much sense).
One of the douchey things of them to say was when Carl, our cymbal player, was walking toward the drumline. "Hey! Why you playing the cymbals? Can't play anything else?"
To Carl's credit, he was more amused by it and said that he turned around and told the guy, "Why yes, actually." (I found out a little while ago that he's in drumline because not only does he like it, but he also cannot play an instrument and has no inclination to do so.)
Other things were jeered at us, some of them not making sense, but others being fairly cruel and hostile. But then again, this rivalry has been celebrated for YEARS. It shouldn't surprise me that there's a lot of crap going on about it. Hell, I've heard a lot about it just walking around campus and seeing the shirts and stuff people wear in celebration.
Now that all these weird and bad things have happened at Lehigh-Laf, I have a bad association with them. Goal of getting Erin to really dislike Lafayette: accomplished.
-
Another note of their band: they have a pep band not a marching band. So we kicked. their. ASS on the field. Even with about 5 or 6 minutes for our show. They walked ten paces on the field, turned around, and played a single song three times without even marking time. Then we proceeded to rush to our places and kick their butts by playing Living on a Prayer and Any Way You Want It and doing the Death Box of Doom (which I will post a link of later so you can see the sheer awesomeness of the move we had to pull off x) ).
WHAT NOW LAFAYETTE???
They're talking about making our halftime show super long next year when it's a home game so they have only like a minute for their contribution. x)
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Another note: I played 'Lehigh Fight' at the game today and at the EcoFlame yesterday. Yesterday at the EcoFlame I also played parts of 'I Want You Back' (mostly the parts that weren't ridiculous eighth notes in weird combinations that span across half an octave). I'm so happy. :D And then...the season's over. :( We play in the playoffs, but we don't know yet. Either way I'm sad the season's over...and a little apprehensive about next year.
Let me back up a bit. There are two alto sax ranks, three if you count the rank with tenor and bari sax. There are currently two holes in the ranks, one in each. There are three seniors so next season there will, in theory, be five open spots if I stay in my rank. But I don't know what will happen. I mean, I can play all of two songs and parts of others. All I do is march. So I wonder...if more saxes come, what will happen to me? What will happen if more frosh come and the band goes over 97? I know it has in the past, but what will happen to me? Will I be kicked out of Rank 10? I'm a little....not worried, but apprehensive about next season. :( I kind of hope they don't, but at the same time it would kind of make sense. I mean, why keep me when they can have someone who actually knows what they're doing?
Bah. Anyway, we beat Lafayette and that's all that matters.
:)
~E
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