A Big Blatant Bragging Blog

There were a myriad of blog topics on my mind this past week, probably none of which I'll remember now. Except my exploits of Saturday last. I remember them very well.

Saturday the 4th, I blew off Octoberfest to go see my nephie, the incomparable TaytieMac, march in a band festival. This was a necessity; it was a promise. See, last year, when he was an 8th grade percussion pit player, I found myself missing every single one of his festivals to go to Octoberfest performances. This year, dear TM was prepared. Back in about August, he had a special conversation with me. It consisted of one sentence. "Bet, you're not gonna miss all my festivals again this year, are you?"

This was, of course, accompanied by the Puppy Dog Eyes.

Mr Mac is now 14 years old and a freshman in high school. But he still knows that all he has to do is pop the Puppy Dog Eyes at me and I'm a pushover for anything he asks. It scares me to think of what could be down the road. But in any case, he really needn't have given me the Eyes. Because I wanted to go to at least one of his competition festivals. Not only do I love watching any bands, but I'm a Graham High School Band alumnus, and I think they're still a damn fine band, and fun to watch to boot.

And so on Saturday morning we found ourselves winding down the curvy roads to Wise, VA. (My mom wanted to go along, and after a little convincing, we got Dad to go along too.)

We got there early enough to see almost every band. I think we only missed two. They were grouped into classes, A, AA, AAA, and AAAA, by size of the band. Not of the school. Graham was the last to play, they were the largest band there, and in fact the only band in their division.

I never thought of the Graham band as being that big. Certainly nowhere near the numbers they had back in my band days. But watching this band festival was a sobering experience for me. A sad one and a heartening one.

They were still doing class A bands when we got there and found some good seats. The first band we saw play had 17 members. I was shocked. Bands have as little as 17 members?? The next one had 15. I kept thinking, "Imagine being a band director and showing up at your school to find a band of 15 members. How do you arrange a marching program? How do you arrange a concert??"

But have marching programs they did. There were several bands with 20 members or under. And while this did make me indeed sad, that music seems to hold such a small place in schools nowadays, it was quite heartening to see the kids still getting out there and giving it all they had. And some of them had some really good shows, too.

And like the true band geeks we are, my mom and I clapped wildly for every band that came out there.

There were lots of band members milling around the bleachers, waiting for their turns to play, or having just played. It seems to be a fashion nowadays to have a t-shirt with one's band's program printed on it, with a fancy graphic, and the songs the band plays. I saw about 12 different ones Saturday. Graham's were funny. See, back before band camp, the program was going to have a Robin Hood theme. Then things just weren't coming together, so the director scrapped the whole thing and started over. So the Graham Band shirt had printed on the back "Robin Hood." Then there was a line through that and underneath it just said, "He changed his mind."

Lots of cute ideas and songs came up during the day. One very small band did a Beach Boys-themed show that ended with a really nice chordy arrangement of "In My Room" (my personal favorite Beach Boys song). One band did a fast car-themed show that included "Flirtin' With Disaster." Who ever thought they'd hear a high school band on the field playing that one? Then you had your hi-brow bands who did things like “Carmen” or selections of all classical numbers. One band did “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” that was pretty cool.

Our band came from a long way away. There weren’t a great deal of Graham fans and parents in the stands. Other bands had reams of people there, with flags, and shakers and the whole deal. But when it was Graham’s turn to play, we tried to be as vocal as we could.

And so it came their turn to play. And if I may say so myself, as an alumnus and proud aunt, they were terrific. I’ve seen them at a ball game this year, and spend the occasional lazy evening watching them practice, and I’m always blown away – literally blown away! – by the sheer amount of sound they get from their horns. And on this day it all came together, the sound, the marching, the enthusiasm…I was so proud not only of TaytieMac, drummer boy extraordinaire, but of all the kids.

Then it came time for awards to be presented in each class. It was kind of a given we were going to win everything in class AAAA, seeing as how we were the only band in it. But there were final trophies given to bands regardless of their classes. Best band of the day, best color guard, best majorettes, best drum majors, best drumline. And save for the drum major category, Graham swept. Best band of the day, which meant highest judging score of anyone there, that was good. And of course, seeing the drumline win the best of the day was icing on the cake.

(Oh, a small aside here: When you’re the coolest there, folks obviously are quite jealous. Because for all of us who clapped for all the other bands and cheered them on, when our kids got out there, everyone else decidedly sat on their hands. Sour grapes.)

And now for the plug. Wanna hear TM’s band play? Their website has sound files of the whole show, recorded at the festival. Just head right here and go down to “Sounds,” and the last four items are the show in order. You just have to download them all separately. “Mambo” is my favorite, even if they didn’t yell “Mambo!” as we all know they should have.

Oh, and by the way. Section leader of the drumline and there to accept all the drumming awards on Saturday? None other than dear, brave, stalwart Mowing Boy. Can you beat that?