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Hey, I know Steven and Lozer were at the MN game this past week, and was wondering if anyone here has ever seen their band before. To be honest with you, I was entirely unimpressed.

Notes:
- Nothing stood out as "unique"
- Their halftime show seemed A LOT like a pregame show. I was honestly confused by everything they did at halftime.
- They were miked. This may have been because they were in the dome, but it was downright odd to see the band to my lower right, but hear them in my upper left.
- I missed pregame becuase Minnesota's ticket booth is hideously SLOW.
- Of the six Big 10/11 bands I've seen, they were by far the worst. For the record, I've now seen the Big 10 bands of: Michigan, OSU, Illinois, Wisconsin, MN, and Purdue.

Any thoughts?

I have watched a few youtube clips of the gopher band. I do enjoy their uniforms, being almost exactly like our old ones and all. Not a single one of those videos has anything that could be conceived as the marching band playing on them though. I guess that's why they're milked. As far as the pregame thing goes, the badger's half-time was exactly like their pregame also. Not just to the extent that they don't change their marching style either. The drill, the playing and the attitude were all the same.

bgmaggot00 wrote:Hey, I know Steven and Lozer were at the MN game this past week, and was wondering if anyone here has ever seen their band before. To be honest with you, I was entirely unimpressed.

Notes:
- Nothing stood out as "unique"
- Their halftime show seemed A LOT like a pregame show. I was honestly confused by everything they did at halftime.
- They were miked. This may have been because they were in the dome, but it was downright odd to see the band to my lower right, but hear them in my upper left.
- I missed pregame becuase Minnesota's ticket booth is hideously SLOW.
- Of the six Big 10/11 bands I've seen, they were by far the worst. For the record, I've now seen the Big 10 bands of: Michigan, OSU, Illinois, Wisconsin, MN, and Purdue.

Any thoughts?

I was going to post something too... I agree I was not impressed at all. I dunno if it is because they have not started school yet so they might not have practiced a whole lot yet?? But it was just different.
The halftime was very much like pregame. The friends I was with came back after going to the bathroom and getting a drink during half time and was like, was the half time show good?? I was like umm no, it was pregame again. LOL. They also don't seem to care what they look like with respect to their uniforms. I saw one girl who's pants were way to long, covering her shoes and all and then another person who had way short pants. it just looked bad. I am looking forward to MSU's band this week to see what they are all about.

I was at the game too. They couldn't set a straight line to save their lives but the M looked pretty darn good and they did a good job rotating it. The high step was better than most do it. My biggest problem was their sound but that was probably due to the dome. I bet they would have been a lot better in an outdoor stadium. So of the Big 10 bands that I've seen, here's my order of good to bad:

Michigan
OSU
MSU
Indiana
Minny
Penn State
Wisconsin

MarkL wrote:I was at the game too. They couldn't set a straight line to save their lives but the M looked pretty darn good and they did a good job rotating it. The high step was better than most do it. My biggest problem was their sound but that was probably due to the dome. I bet they would have been a lot better in an outdoor stadium. So of the Big 10 bands that I've seen, here's my order of good to bad:

Michigan
OSU
MSU
Indiana
Minny
Penn State
Wisconsin

From what I've seen the list should look more like this-

Michigan
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan State
Iowa
Wisconsin
Purdue
Minny
Indiana
Illinois
Northwestern

Some of this is by hearsay because I havn't seen everyone yet. But I believe this is pretty close.

I'll follow Niz's lead, but with a few adjustments:

Michigan
Michigan State
Illinois
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Minny
Indiana
Wisconsin
Iowa
Northwestern

Illinois is often overlooked, but they have a great marching band and probably the best overall band program (concert included) in the Big 10. Niz, remind me to loan you some of my Marching Illini CD's, they are really something. They make 350 people sound like a 40-piece wind ensemble. Most of this is based on people I know in these bands and recordings, but I have seen a few live (MSU, OSU, Purdue, Wisky).

The only reason MSU is as low on my list as it is, is due to to some of the less than imaginative drill they have.


This brings up an interesting question, how do we rank the bands of the M.A.C.? The top four are easy, they're the only real good ones comparatively. The rest I either havn't seen enough of or just don't know anything about.


1-4 (in no particular order)

BGSU
WMU
EMU
Miami

As far as I know, Kent is by far the worst, and I believed they are followed closely by akron. The guys in the middle I don't know about. Ohio is ok, but they're very high schoolish with all their wiggling and blareing.

I'm not going to put BG in the rankings of the MAC because I'd be biased but of what I've seen first hand here goes:

Ohio
Miami
WMU
Akron
Ball St
Toledo
Kent

MarkL wrote:I'm not going to put BG in the rankings of the MAC because I'd be biased but of what I've seen first hand here goes:

Ohio
Miami
WMU
Akron
Ball St
Toledo
Kent

At least slUT doesn't let any of their marchers wear sneakers like crackron does on occasion.

I'll add to this tomorrow, but we had this discussion ranking both Big 10 and MAC bands in the car on the way back from MN. With the MAC, don't forget about NIU. While not outstanding, they're always pretty decent.

bgmaggot00 wrote:I'll add to this tomorrow, but we had this discussion ranking both Big 10 and MAC bands in the car on the way back from MN. With the MAC, don't forget about NIU. While not outstanding, they're always pretty decent.

what about temple.. do they have a band, i'm guessing they do??

To be fair to Kent, there was a time when they didn't have a marchig band. This is fairly recent addition to their football offering.

I can't believe anyone with hearing they care for would put Ohio anywhere near the top of their list. Their sound is pretty awful unless you LOVE laser sound shows. I do not. My ears are still bleeding from their last show I saw (15 years ago.)

bgmaggot00 wrote:I'll add to this tomorrow, but we had this discussion ranking both Big 10 and MAC bands in the car on the way back from MN. With the MAC, don't forget about NIU. While not outstanding, they're always pretty decent.

OK, here goes nothing. From the bands of these two conferences that I've seen:

Big 10:
Michigan
Illinois
OSU
Purdue
Wisconsin
MN

MAC
WMU
BG
Miami
CMU
NIU
UT
Ball State
EMU
Marshall (they quasi-count)
Kent

Why is everyone rating osu so high again? They have a great sound and all...but seriously, if you can't even do your signature script ohio without running into each other, you shouldn't be getting praised anywhere. I'm sorry, but their marching has never impressed me with their marching abilities. If that was better, I'd give them top 3 in the big teneleven but there's no way to compare them.

Michigan and Penn St. would be above osu if osu could march from what I've gathered watching big teneleven bands.

Before you criticize another college band, you should take a look at this mess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMbsIRR7wSU