barsad said:
ducky23 said:
barsad said:
Golden One said:
Cal Straw Hat Band is not in Haas tonight. They're playing piped in music, and it is HORRIBLY loud.
Band should be at every home game, no excuses. I don't care if the band won the International Pep Band competition and are playing Wembley Stadium, 10 people stay behind to support the team. Just to be clear, I have no idea where they actually are, just making a point.
Cmon man, this happens every single year during big game week. Traditionally alumni band fills in, guess they couldn't round up enough this year.
Maybe next year you can volunteer. Do you play the cymbals?
I play the sax, and of course I would have filled a slot if I had been asked (turns out, nobody cared enough to ask for volunteers). Clearly you're speaking from a position of zero knowledge about college bands if you think that the band can't split into two squads during Big Game week.
Supporting the major teams (NOT just football) is literally the primary job of the band. When they don't show, and the fans are as sparse as they were tonight, and the cheerleaders are just standing still on the floor because they have only practiced moves on band songs, not super loud recorded crap over the speakers - - well, it says a lot to the outside world about Cal sports, that's all I'm saying. Time to stop saying "c'mon, it's always been this way" and start saying, "How do we make the Haas experience worthy of the ACC, something to be proud of again?"
I think sometimes we tend to forget is that these are STUDENTS who aren't getting paid or getting any class credit, and they are putting in an inordinate amount of time per week for band. And during big game week, it's even crazier where there's not really a single break. Each band member will typically attend 2-3 events per day during big game week, and that's not counting practice and rehearsal.
And as someone else mentioned, they are already being spread thin on big game week as they are broken up into groups to attend multiple events that are happening at the same time all throughout the week.
But if you believe in this strongly, which I respect, here is the email for the band director and Excomm and you can let them know your feelings. All I ask is that you post their reply.
:msadowski@berkeley.edu
:excomm@calband.org