Band Geeks come here!

[The_acrobat]

I've noticed that a lot of people were in marching band, and were fellow band geeks like myself. So I thought I'd start a thread, so we could all show off our band geekism, and share stories. So, feel free to tell band camp stories, without having to worry about someone quoting that American Pie movie. Or whatever. I'll let someone else start the actual story telling or whatever, but I'll just say that I graduated in 2000, and I played the bone.

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

I graduated in 2001 and played flute.

 

[The_acrobat]

I dated 2 flute players in high school! But I won't hold that against you! (Curses the day I met those bitches). Every band needs a group of rebels, a group of guys who don't conform to the ways of the band geek, provide an unhealthy role model for underclassmen, and steal the hearts of the underclassmen girls. We were the "cool guys". Which is pathetic....cause looking back, I don't think we were really that cool, but everyone else was just so lame. But anyone who takes cigarettes to band camp, and lead a raid of the girls floor has to have something going for him.

But I also was a good trombone player. I was second chair for 3 years. But I never did beat Katie....she was just too damn good. Our fight song was "eye of the tiger", and we played songs like "You can call me all", "IN A Gadda Da Vida", "Hey jude" and "You ain't seen nothing yet". No U2........ugh. I will one day write a marching band arrangement of "Discotheque!"

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

"You Can Call Me Al" was practically our fight song! Has a cool flute solo that the saxes would always try to steal. We also played Sunshine of Your Love and Oye Como Va a lot.

I know what you mean about flute players, most of them are prissy little bitches with attitude problems.

We went to Vegas one year, that was a blast.

A band arrangement of discotheque would kick ass!

 

[The_acrobat]

Oye Como Va was another one we played! HAHA! Yeah, the flute solo on "You can call me al" was actually played by my ex girlfriend. We broke up that week, and then at halftime we performed that song, and it pissed me off to hear her play that solo. She played it so perfectly....perfect little bitch! I hope you aren't like most other flutes!

We went to Disney in FL my senior year for a week. That was arguably the happiest week of my life. I don't mean to sound like I can't get over high school. I have....I live a different life now totally. But I can't remember quite that happy for that long at any other point. Good times.

I play guitar in a band now, so I keep up on my music. I haven't touched my trombone since graduation. I went back to a football game this past season, and one of the younger trombones asked me to play the fight song. I remembered it....like riding a bike.

 

[dizzy]

I used to play the piano and a bit of the flute. I wasn't in the band though.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

i was in my high school marching band, however I did not play an instrument. i was in the flag corp, the dance line and rifle line!

 

[Kristie]

I played alto saxophone in marching band... *gets out stories*
I'm curious, how competitive were your bands? The people I've met here that were in marching bands in other states, they think Indiana is insane. Of course, we are
Our band haaad... 360 people my senior year, the year we went to LA to be in the Rose Bowl Parade. Which was almost fun but I wouldn't do it again marching for three hours solid when it's hot and your uniforms are designed for Indiana weather = NOT COOL. (no pun intended)
The best we ever did was sixth at state, but that was the year we got random standing ovations from other bands because of our drum break

 

[cell]

a bit off topic, but i used to be prop person for tall flags in my sophomore or junior year in high school along with being in the drama club. that was fun. i travelled with the marching band and tall flags to competitions. some of the tall flag girls were such bitches in our group, always gossiping, always cat fights or verbal one- ups...i left after a month. it was fun while it lasted.

edited cuz im bad at spelling today

 

[Giant Lemon]

I played clarinet in my high school band. We weren't competitive, though (in terms of marching competitions)- we just played at the football games.

My favorite marching band routine was when we played "The Stripper" by David Rose. At one point we put down our instruments while the drums continued playing, did a little dance, and stripped off one glove. It was hilarious and a lot of fun!

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

my band was very competitive. i marched in several parades. and was for a very short time a part of a drum corp.

 

[daafish]

When I was in Jr. high I played the trumpet and the marching song we played was "axel F" by herbie Hancock. In High school - now playing the sax- I played in two marching bands, 29 palms and gilroy, both of which were small groups. The gilroy groups' Clarinet section sucked ass! There were a good 8 people in that section and they sounded like one with asthma!

 

[Bonochick]

Popular to contrary beliefs, I was never in band, so I never went to band camp. However, I am associted with such because of my beginning so many stories with "one time".

My sister was in band though; she played cornet. She tried to teach me how to play it, but she yelled at me so horribly everytime I fucked up and made me cry. After that, I swore I'd never play an instrument and joined choir instead.

I also had a redheaded friend named Michelle who played the flute and told lots of band camp stories though.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

band camp always provided its share of funny stories, however none were close to American Pie type stories.

 

[AdamsMango]

Ahh I played an interesting game of twister at band camp! I won lol any way I play tenor sax in marching band. We are so competetive it is scary. But it's ok. When we went to grand nationals in Indianapolis (At the RCA dome) this year We got 2nd in our class in Semi Finals..that means we are the 2nd best band in the country for our size! We are in the medium size range. We had 112 people including horn line, drumline and guard (flag, rifle, etc) We played Philip Sparke's "Year of the Dragon" (download it...AMAZING!) Our show was called X-Basics. My avatar is me at grand nationals! Yay!

An interesting but not funny band story..When we left for grand nationals, I left my sax at school. I swore i put it on the van but i didn't. I told my director i set it out and the paret must have left it behind..I don't know how i did that..But some parent was leaving to come see us play at grand nats and stopped by the school to get my sax! Ahh they saved my life.

Here's our logo for the 2002 show:

 

[Kristie]

our band camp... wasn't camp... we just had to be at school from 2-9 for a week, 8-5 for a week, and 2-9 for another week... we worked the whole time, cept an hour for lunch/dinner.
Drill instructor: Okay woodwinds, you're outside on the parking lot for basics for two hours! What? The heat index is only 110 degrees! Work hard get water! Oh, you passed out? Go get some water, be back on the field in 15 minutes. Eat breakfast next time. NO you can't bring water bottles on the field, you'll get your break in three hours. Now run back to where you just were and repeat this set fifty times.

aahh, I miss marching band
We had one show, we had pagodas that would open during the aforementioned drum break to reveal a giant kodo drum and a guy beating it with a baseball bat whilst the 300 other kids did a tribal dance and waved streamers, then half the band ran off the field and came back with giant flags for the end of the show while other people ran streamers all the way cross the field from the big pagoda...
*snif*
that was a good year.

I might have to scan pictures

 

[meegannie]

*points and laughs.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

should i scan pictures of me dressed up in a white satin tux while wearing a santa hat or of me in a white puffy wedding looking dress or in a blue uniform? *thinks very very hard* the answer: HELL NO!

 

[AdamsMango]

our band camp... wasn't camp... we just had to be at school from 2-9 for a week, 8-5 for a week, and 2-9 for another week... we worked the whole time, cept an hour for lunch/dinner.
Drill instructor: Okay woodwinds, you're outside on the parking lot for basics for two hours! What? The heat index is only 110 degrees! Work hard get water! Oh, you passed out? Go get some water, be back on the field in 15 minutes. Eat breakfast next time. NO you can't bring water bottles on the field, you'll get your break in three hours. Now run back to where you just were and repeat this set fifty times.

that's our mini and pre-camp! And any camp days they throw in. Then at the end of july there is band camp..which starts at 6:30 and ends at 11! At this weird Jesus obsessed camp in the boonies, where the feild isn't lined and nothing is air conditions, and there are horse flies the size of your fist, which i found like the smell of the soap i brought to band camp, which caused them to bite/sting me alot. OW And it was only 112 degrees

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

Our band camps weren't that bad, but they certainly weren't fun. Marking on field lines that they painted in the parking lot during a so cal summer for a week.

 

[Kristie]

dude, you made it to grand nationals?
kickass
our band'll never make it, we have too many people to keep clean
RCA dome = also kickass cept the damn helmet *kicks it*
and the loudspeaker that's like "there are no guns, firearms, or explosives allowed inside the RCA dome"
aaand the evil factory
*stops that*

all of the staff had to work for free the first week of band last year because we didn't get enough funding

 

[The_acrobat]

For our band camp, we drove about 2 hours away to a little college in Ohio called Bluffton College. It was a religeous college. We'd go monday morning and get back friday night. It was always the highlight of the summer, unfortunately.

I do have some interesting and *scandalous* band camp stories. Although no one shoved a flute inside them, there was a girl who brought a dildo with her. Her room mate stole it and gave it to us, and we put it up in the lobby of our dorm building we stayed in, with the words: WHO'S DILDO IS THIS? It was hilarious, but the girl was mad at us.

There was that wonderful game of strip poker that we had going on in the basement. And that even better game of truth or dare on the band bus to Florida. Robby, a young freshman dork had never been kissed before. By the end of that bus ride, no only did he get his first kiss, but he also ate his first piece of candy off of a girl's boob, and learned how to remove a bra. The boy made me proud.

But band camp wasn't all a big Girls Gone Wild experience. There was the time I got to be squad leader, and I treated it like a military operation. I made a freshman girl cry...she thought I was serious when I called her a "Maggot". But I made up with her, and my squad went on to win the marchoff. It was fun.

There was skit night, where I dressed up like a woman. We were playing the dating game, and I was the date. The contestant was an awkward freshman named Josh. I am a pretty big guy (6'2", 200 lbs), so it hard to find a dress I could fit into. But there was a big girl, and I got into hers alright. But when I got out there, everyone was screaming and laughing and taking pictures of me. Then, I looked down. This dress happened to be tight around my crotch, and basically, Mr.Happy's outline was well defined. This was my senior year. I had freshman girl's mothers yell at me when they saw the pictures. I felt bad. Plus, you could see through the dress, to my polkadot boxers. Ugh.

That's all for now. More after the rest of you start posting more scandalous things.

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

hahaha i wish we got to do that type of stuff, although there were some pretty wild things going on in the band room. Our band camp was at school and not overnight. It was more something that was dreaded, not looked forward to

 

[IWasBored]

i wanted to be a band geek. but i quit playing the trumpet when i was in 6th grade.

 

[MiniFly]

"You Can Call Me Al" was practically our fight song! Has a cool flute solo that the saxes would always try to steal. We also played Sunshine of Your Love and Oye Como Va a lot.

I know what you mean about flute players, most of them are prissy little bitches with attitude problems.

We went to Vegas one year, that was a blast.

A band arrangement of discotheque would kick ass!

A COOL FLUTE SOLO?!?! GOOD GOD SHANNON!!! THEY'VE FINALLY GOTTEN TO YOU!!!

Yeah, I was section leader of the saxophones who stole their solo. Hehehehe.

God I hates marching band. I always complained. Always. without fail. But I stayed.

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

I was terrible at marching, me flute was never ever close to parallel with the ground! I was nominated for worst marcher all four years , but i never won

 

[MiniFly]

hahaha i wish we got to do that type of stuff, although there were some pretty wild things going on in the band room. Our band camp was at school and not overnight. It was more something that was dreaded, not looked forward to

Yeah band camp = hell. It was like marching in hell. About 4,000 degrees on black asphalt with my poor poor saxophone and getting sunburned like no Scot ever has before and whining about the god awful music. We had the STRANGEST themes. Like this hodge-podge piece of crap that made no sense what so ever. And it was in 3/4. Yeah. Exactly.

But jazz band was a different story. I was in charge of that mess. We played cards, had wheely chair races, played capture the flag and tag and hide and seek. And our band teacher our senior year was a puch over. So it was easy to have fun. One day we built a fort and watched Fight Club.

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

We had the STRANGEST themes. Like this hodge-podge piece of crap that made no sense what so ever. And it was in 3/4. Yeah. Exactly.

HAHAHAHA You almost made me wake up my sister!
Yeah i rememeber that, the director took one of our concert band pieces from the year before and "arranged" it into something "marchable"
Didn't that one also have a section where it went back and forth between two different meters or was that some other piece of crap that we played?

I wish I could have been in jazz band, flute!

 

[MiniFly]

HAHAHAHA You almost made me wake up my sister!
Yeah i rememeber that, the director took one of our concert band pieces from the year before and "arranged" it into something "marchable"
Didn't that one also have a section where it went back and forth between two different meters or was that some other piece of crap that we played?

I wish I could have been in jazz band, flute!

That my dear is why flutes suck, other than when played in conjunction with Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool.

Yeah, stupid Autumn-something or other. It was bad enough the first time, then he had to change it all up and have those 3/4 measures in there. GAH!

 

[meegannie]

i wanted to be a band geek. but i quit playing the trumpet when i was in 6th grade.

I quit the clarinet in 5th grade because I heard that if you were in band in middle school, you had to have sex on the buses.