Three cheers for the MIT Marching Band

Three cheers for the MIT Marching Band MIT had a football game this afternoon against Worcester State. The final score was 49-6. Its apparently the worst loss in over 15 years. It was also my first football game as a member of the world-famous, nationally-renowned, often copied but never cloned, unforgettable (no matter how hard you try), super phat, super fly, one and only MIT Marching Band. Here are 10 things I remember: 1. Taking a good two minutse to cram four trumpets, a clarinet, two trombones, a snare, a bass, quads, and a sousaphone into an elevator in the student center, then playing We Are The Engineers on kazoo on the way down. The guy coming down from the fifth floor called it the most memorable elevator ride hed ever had. 2. Making up the entire show 30 minutes before the beginning of the game. In high school it used to take us two weeks of seven-hour band camp days just to get the first half down. We practiced in a courtyard with two giant columns in the way of come of our formations. 3. The show itself, which consisted of running onto the field, catching our breath to humorous effect, playing two choruses of We Are The Engineers while spelling out M I T in the drill, and then taking large bows. I tried to remember slow backup technique from my Tournament of Bands days, but eventually just gave up. 4. The incredible and indefatigable MIT Cheerleading squad, featuring the bloggable Mollie. For MIT students, theyre remarkably happy, and not too shabby at the high-flying stunts either. 5. Heckler: Hey, Ref, youre missing a good game! Snare: ::rimshot:: 6. Brian 09 and his inspired cowbell solo in the opening bars of Low Rider. Just the idea of having a cowbell soloist when youve only got 11 members in the band is pretty cool in itself. 7. The entire band shouting at a photographer for The Tech: BRYAN HEAMON! Hi! Take our picture! Thank you! 8. Ruth 07 playing quads for the first time in her life and being an absolute rock star. Turns out most of the people in the band are in the Im playing this for the first time ever boat, so Im not alone. Weve got a former piccolist or something on trombone. We really dont hold each other to very high standards of playing. 9. Apparently, were just going to add more songs to the show as the season progresses. We havent decided what though. Caroline 08, trombone, suggested that we do A Salute to Walking, since we have sheet music for Walk This Way, Walk Like An Egyptian, and Baby Elephant Walk 10. Three cheers for the MIT Marching Band concealed within the extended entry. One somewhat risque Hey, cheerleaders! What? Hey, cheerleaders! What? Shake your booty! No way! Shake your booty! Okay! Jump, shake your booty, jump jump, shake your booty! Hey, band! What? Hey, band! What? Shake your booty! No way! Shake your booty! Okay! Jump, shake your booty, jump jump, shake your booty! Hey, football players! Hey, football players! Shake your booty! Shake your booty! Screw you! One epic Gimme an M! M! Gimme an A! A! Gimme an S! S! Gimme an S! S! Gimme an A! A! Gimme a C! C! Gimme an H! H! Gimme a U! U! Gimme an S! S! Gimme an E! E! Gimme a T! T! Gimme another T! T! Gimme an S! S! Gimme a space! Space! Gimme an I! I! Gimme an N! N! Gimme an S! S! Gimme a T! T! Gimme an I! I! Gimme a T! T! Gimme an U! U! Gimme a T! T! Gimme an E! E! Gimme another space! Space! Gimme an O! O! Gimme an F! F! Gimme one last space! Spaaaace! Gimme an T! T! Gimme an E! E! Gimme an C! C! Gimme an H! H! Gimme an N! N! Gimme an O! O! Gimme an L! L! Gimme an O! O! Gimme an G! G! Gimme an Y! Y! Whats that spell? MIT! and one classic. Im a beaver, Youre a beaver, We are beavers all. And when we get together, We do the beaver call. e to the u, du / dx e to the x, dx Cosine, secant, tangent, sine 3.14159 Integral, radical, mu dv Slipstick, slide rule, MIT! GOOOOOO TECH! Thanks for the laughs, guys. See you next week.