|
|
|
Band on the Run Northwestern University Wildcat Marching Band camp is the boot camp of the marching world — an annual pre-season sweat-a-thon that occurs each September before New Student Week begins. Since the 1980s "newcomers" (mostly freshmen) and "formers" have been bused to George Williams College on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin to live in rustic dorms, eat cafeteria food and gut through a week's worth of grueling marching drills. Band camp's official purpose is to learn music and to practice marching fundamentals such as the 8-to-5 step (eight steps to every five yards), the "correct right" (a 270-degree flip turn) and the about-face (a 180-degree flip to the rear) — techniques the band will need to learn its pregame and halftime shows. However, most NUMB members don't remember band camp for the grueling rehearsals. Instead, they think of it as a time to get to know each other, to gel as a unit and to have a tremendous amount of fun getting acquainted — or reacquainted — with the crazy rituals that are the essence of NUMB. Each evening after rehearsals end in the indoor auditorium, a muffled chant starts to rise from the 180 musicians: "Psych...pysch...pysch..." It's the band's call to the spirit team to begin one of the most enduring and favorite band traditions, the spirit session. The spirit session indoctrinates newcomers into the stuff of band lore. The spirit leader kicks off the festivities by presiding over a call-and-response chant that begins "Hear ye, hear ye, the band's in session. ... Here comes the band, the Wildcat band!" Band members clap their hands to a rhythmic beat while the spirit leader uses the singsong, rap-like chant to introduce the people involved with NUMB and many of the band's traditions. For example, director of bands Mallory Thompson (Mu79, GMu80) is introduced with: "There's Dr. Thompson, the band's top brass; she leads the alma mater, and she does it with class." Once "Hear Ye" is concluded, the second half of the spirit team takes over: The band's "grinder" performs the ceremonial grind, a Tasmanian devil-like flurry that climaxes in the vicious winding of the grinder's arm, which is attached to his sacred "magic thumb o' spirit." "When I was a freshman and saw the spirit session after the first music rehearsal," says Kellie MacDonald (S00), last year's spirit leader, "I called my parents and said, 'Oh my gosh, I belong here.'" It all works somehow, and NUMB members are a cohesive unit before they even set foot on campus. "Because of band camp, I already knew 200 faces before classes started," says Sarah Schmidt, a sophomore studying engineering. "That's a huge relief when you are a freshman." — P.D.S. |