Friday Night Lights Are Not Just for Football
When you go to a football game on a Friday night what do you think about besides obviously the football players? Some may say the large field, some may say the concessions stand and some may say the bleachers. For us in band, the thing we think of is of course the marching band. Being in marching band during a football game is probably the best part of marching band. From stand tunes to traveling to away games with the pep band, football games were not just for the football players.
Stand tunes are smaller pieces of music that the marching band plays in the bleachers when the football team does something cool like a first down or a touchdown. Or to encourage the defense when they are trying to stop a drive by the opposing team. Stand tunes can be standard tunes like Day of Wrath or something cool like Sweet Caroline/Seven Nation Army. One of my favorites is Land of 1000 Dances. This song was usually played following halftime. to get the crowd excited about the second half of the game. This song is special to me because it is exactly what I like about stand tunes. It is loud, fast paced, and most importantly it is fun.
Sometimes the marching band would travel to the away games as part of a pep band. A pep band is a smaller part of the marching band that would go to play stand tunes. Sometimes during the games if my school is the pep band or if a pep band was brought by the opposing team to our home games, the two bands would have a stand battle. Stand battles are when we would play a stand tune and then the opposing team's band would play one. Then we would play louder and they would then play louder. It would then evolve into which band could play louder. These battles were always one of the best parts of traveling with the pep band.
But what is better than playing against a band? Well of course playing with the opposing team's band. Sometimes the two bands would play the national anthem together at the start of the game. Additionally, sometimes both bands would perform together on the field at halftime.
So next time you are enjoying a Friday night football game make sure to check out the marching band. Actually, you can probably already hear them. Like I said Friday night lights are not just for football.
