Damn, We're Good – The Huskies Pep Band

Mark your calendars: The 2011-12 Huskies Pep Band Camp will be Friday, August 26 from 3:00-7:00pm and Saturday, August 27 10:00-12:00p in McArdle Theatre (in Walker).

As usual, dinner will be provided on Friday evening by the lovely people of Mu Beta Psi.   The first football game is September 10 against Lake Erie which gives us a little more time to prepare than usual – but not much.  Leave your quiet voices at home.

If you are an incoming student…  Have a look around – check out the FAQ page.  If you need an instrument be sure to come to the instrument check-out on Friday, August 26th at 10:00am (if you can’t make it to the check-out email Nick).

If you are a returning member…  Keep checking your email for information regarding pre-registration, early stripe checkout, and informational packets on mental health for tuba players.

We’ll see you at 3:00pm on Friday, August 26th!

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While most classes at Michigan Tech are out for the summer members and alumni of the Pep Band gathered to go out and play at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City.

In waiting for the parade to step off, the band exchanged friendly heckles with other parade entries as they passed.

The band started the parade with a roar of their traditional 2001 Entrance, boasting stripes, Michigan Tech spirit, and vibrant music to the masses lining the streets. Alumni Karen Hood Zais commented the “Pep band was awesome, as usual…and the only band in the entire parade that played the whole route. Loved it!”

Through a strategically planned blitz of circus tricks, FDA-compliant jokes, and traditional sunshining the band earned the title of “2011 National Cherry Festival Most Humorous Parade Entry.”

The band would like to thank the Michigan Tech Alumni Association for providing funding for transportation, food, and most importantly, coordinating the host families for the band members’ night in Traverse City.

The simple truth is we couldn’t have done it without you!

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The Huskies Pep Band is proud to join our lady Huskies at the NCAA Elite Eight in St. Joseph, Missouri after they won their third consecutive NCAA Midwest Regional Title!!

Follow the band’s journey to St. Joseph 140 characters at time on Twitter!

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After a relatively restful start to the semester, the Pep Band season is now in full spring. With performances at the Parade of Nations and a home football game under their belt, the band is in the midst of it’s busiest week so far this year, with four performances.

Last night the band made a surprise appearance at the kick-off event for the public phase of the Generations of Discovery capital campaign. Highlighting the night for the band was a performance of “Big Spender” led by David House (Tone, ’65), who has donated over $10 Million toward the capital campaign, for which he also serves as the volunteer chair. House, who was a longtime executive at Intel and is currently Chairman of Brocade Communication Systems, was presented with a customized Michigan Tech Hockey Jersey and a pair of stripes to mark the occasion. The band is even briefly mentioned in the Daily Mining Gazette article on the event.

Later today the band will participate in the annual Homecoming Parade, this year starting in Downtown Houghton and moving back toward campus along College Avenue, finally ending at the Homecoming Pep Rally on campus.

Tomorrow the band can be seen at the Homecoming Football Game against Ohio-Dominican, and at the exhibition Hockey Game against Nipissing.

Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, the band recently published and distributed the first issue of The Striped Times, our new semesterly newsletter. Highlights of this first issue are an article about the Battle at the Ballpark game and performance from last October, a profile of 2nd and 1.5th Generation members of the band, and an update on the band’s new location at Hockey Games. This issue is available right on this very website under “Newsletter” above.

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Good News Everyone!

Photos are back on the DaWGs Website. Just clicky that link up top to see the Pep Band in Action from this year.

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Music is a great example of a dynamic art form. Each performer of a song brings their own personality and style to their interpretation of the composer’s work. Over time a song can even come to resemble it’s earlier versions in little more than name. A great example of this is the Michigan Tech Fight song.

This first version is a restoration of a 1948 recording of Warney Ruhl and His Band performing Fight Tech Fight, Engineers! Weighing in at 2:29 this recording is not only much longer than the 0:53 recording of the song (with tags) from the 2007 Album For Your Aural Pleasure. It is vastly different in style as well, with more of a march/polka feel. The modern version also features a Wind introduction, as opposed to the drum roll-off of the earlier version, and tags at the end in place of more repetitions of the main melody.

Personally I think the newer version is much Peppier, but perhaps I’m biased. Either way, it’s interesting to see where we came from.

Fight Song, 1948 Style (mp3 3.42 MB)

Fight Song, 2007 Style (mp3 2.03 MB)

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This past weekend brought the first official events of the Pep Band Season, and a long day for the DaWGs.

Friday Night the band helped pump up the crowd at the Pep Rally hosted by the newly re-opened Mine Shaft and Rock House Grill as part of their Grand Opening weekend. Band members enjoyed bowling, go-carts, and food while not playing for the crowd.

The annual Parade of Nations was held Saturday Morning with the Huskies Pep Band participating, as usual, though this year there was significantly less musical participation overall with the Pep Band being joined only by the Houghton High School Marching Band and Batucobre, the Copper Country’s Local Samba Bateria.

Immediately following the Parade was the band’s first athletic event, the Home Football Opener against arch-rivals Northern Michigan University. The Half-Time show this week was “The Number One Hits that Make You Groan” and featured Starship’s “We Built This City (On Rock and Roll)”, Hanson’s “MMMbop”, Ace of Base’s “The Sign”, and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achey Breaky Heart”. Due to time limitations both the Half-Time and Pre-Game performances were cut short, but the band played far more during the game than in years past, helping to keep the energy up at Sherman Field. Sadly, NMU proved to much for the Huskies and captured the Miner’s Cup.

Next weekend brings #1 Grand Valley State to town for the first Michigan Tech night game at Sherman Field.

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Mark your calendars: The 2009-10 Huskies Pep Band Camp will be Friday, August 28 from 3:00-7:00p and Saturday, August 29 10:00-12:00p in McArdle Theatre (in Walker).

As usual, dinner will be provided on Friday by the lovely people of Mu Beta Psi Friday.   The first football game is September 19 against NMU which gives us a little more time to prepare than usual – but not much.  Leave your quiet voices at home.

If you are a returning member…  Keep checking your email for information regarding pre-registration, early stripe checkout, and the defenestration of clarinetists.

If you are an incoming students…  Have a look around.  Check out the FAQ page.  If you need an instrument be sure to come to the instrument check-out on Friday, August 28th at 10:00am (if you can’t make it to the check-out email Nick ).  We’ll see you at 3:00pm on Friday, August 28th!

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It has been a year to the day since the last real update to our website, and for that I must apologize. This is why I stopped doing my own blog

Anyway, you’ll notice some changes to the site, so take a look around, and join us for band camp Friday, August 28 at 3 PM in McArdle Theater.

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