Flirtin' with Disaster (Molly Hatchet)

I would like to take this opportunity to recount the events of the Marching Tar Heels during this, the week of August 25-30.

On Tuesday evening at 6:00, we gathered for rehearsal. The task at hand was to learn the drill for our halftime show, a show featuring music that can be played in the video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The musical selections included Highway Star (Deep Purple), Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions), and Flirtin' with Disaster (Molly Hatchet). This evening set the trend for a very wet week. We rehearsed virtually the entire two hours in the rain - soaking ourselves, our drill charts, our music, and (in some cases), our instruments. At this rehearsal, we not only practiced our show, but we practiced being teammates. We, the Piccolos, in an effort to protect our instruments from the inclement weather, rehearsed the music portion using our voices rather than our piccolos. During this time, we stood in the rain proudly, along with the rest of the band, and sang and marked our hearts out. Our first 2 hours of practice.

Then on Thursday, we gathered again on what promised to be a wet evening, but turned out to be quite lovely. We discovered at this rehearsal that we had ill-learned the drill during our previous "damp" practice. We spent a great deal of time attempting to correct mistakes that, alas, persisted throughout the rest of the week. For a few of the Seniors in the Piccolo Section, this rehearsal was met with great frustration as we attempted to assist our section-mates and even reached out across sections to a few clarinet players, but failed to see any improvement in the quality of the show. Thus the total hours of rehearsal comes to 4.

Friday presented a few problems of its own. Our rehearsal took place earlier in the afternoon, which presented a certain amount of heat we had heretofore avoided. We continued to suffer from problems in the drill of our halftime show, now convinced that people simply weren't putting forth the effort that they could. Finally, as rehearsal drew to a close, we returned to the material we had learned for our Pregame show, hoping to choreograph the event with the Cheerleaders and Dance Team. Alas, this too presented more difficulty than the students could foresee. The proposed landing of several parachuters required a significant adjustment to our Pregame show, and also required an additional 40 minutes of rehearsal. Now thoroughly "moist" with sweat, several members had to transition straight into a performance for the Men's Soccer Carolina Classic. During which, a good time was had by (mostly) all. Rehearsal time now totals 6.5 hours.

Finally, we reach the climax of our story - Game Day. Our day began at 8:30am when we reconvened on the steps of Wilson Library to take pictures of the band in our lovely uniforms. (Hottie wore them band overalls...). Several hours of waiting, taking pictures, and more waiting brought us to our final rehearsal time for the week. We ran a quick dress rehearsal of the day's performances - Tar Heel Town, Pregame, and Halftime. At this point, most of the band was "glistening" profusely, and subsequently dehydrated, and just plain tired of being on their feet. Total rehearsal time at this point was 8.5 hours.

A lunch break filled the time between this rehearsal and our first "performance," which was our warm-up in the Pit. At this time, the first Game Day jitters began to appear for some - mostly in the form of goosepimples as fans joined in singing Victory, Hark the Sound, and even Aye Zigga Zoomba. Our traditional performance schedule (Team Walk Through, Drumline in the Pit, Trumpets and Tubas at Dey, band in front of Wilson, parade down Stadium Drive, and Pep Band performances at various locations, we reached the final stage of this performance - Kenan Stadium and Game Time!

After an exhilarating Pregame performance, the band took their place in the stands to cheer our Tar Heels on to Victory. But the game would not proceed as planned. With 12 minutes left in the second quarter, the game was "temporarily suspended" for weather. Everyone was asked to evacuate the stadium and bide their time in the concourse. The band proceeded out of the stadium with the rest of the bewildered fans. And there, in the concourse, they waited. The band waited for 1 hour and 48 minutes. What did the band do during that time? It will not leave the concourse...

Please note that play resumed at 8:40, 12 hours after the Marching Tar Heels had gathered on the steps of Wilson for their photo shoot.

Finally, an exasperated band took their places once again in the stands, still prepared to cheer their team on to Victory. However, their team was not prepared to lead the Tar Heels to Victory. A great deal of football jargon should ensure here, relating how the Tar Heels failed to play football correctly while McNeese appeared to execute with precision and accuracy. Thankfully for the band, our football team turned things around. The Tar Heels regained their bearings and won the game 35-27.

Finally, the band concluded our day with a Carolina Victory. The official end time of the game escapes me, but it was somewhere between 10 and 11, bringing the total number of hours spent in band-related activities for the week to 23!!!!

I love band.