Being a band kid has always been something that I have taken great pride in. I am able to be who I want to be when I am with these people, and there are bonds created that will never be broken.

For some, it is hard to see the impact that a musical environment, such as a band, has on individuals or a community. I stepped out of my percussion shoes for this piece and observed the UMD pep band on one of their rehearsal nights and one of their game days from an outsider's lens.

We are dubbed as the nerds or the band kids, but taking a step back and looking deeper into the UMD Athbands community shows that we are so much more and that our hard work, for this university and ourselves, deserves to be recognized.

The UMD Pep Band and alumni gather at Amsoil Arena to celebrate the Women's hockey teams last home game and the importance of band family. Photo by Aaron Dewanz.

Rehearsal Night

Stepping into the Pep bands rehearsal space was like walking into a family reunion; everyone knew each other, people were laughing, exchanging stories from their week and it was an immediate sense of good vibes. A few minutes passed, the voices and waves of laughter started to fade, and the sound of instruments started to rise. Not a soul was phased by the high-pitched shrieks coming from the flute section or the ear-breaking rim shots coming from the drumline; it was just another Wednesday night for everyone.

When I took a look around, not one person looked like another. There were tall people, short people, boys, girls, dark skin, light skin, beards, tattoos, brightly colored hair and every variation of person you could think of. There was one single red string that was holding all these people together and that was all the UMD and bulldog gear that everyone was flaunting; at least 85% of the band was wearing some sort of maroon and gold merch that expressed their love for the university.

After a while of these warm-ups and conversations, one of the student conductors took to the stand yelling, “Hey band!” and got a fun response of “Hey what!” from everyone else in the room. The next few minutes were a rundown of the week the band was set to have - mostly involving the hockey games they were set to play for the weekend - who was scheduled to play, who wanted to be extra at the game and who wouldn’t be able to make it. Once business was all taken care of, the leader's face lit up with a smile. “Alright… let's play!”

The second that these words were spoken, the energy in the room flipped like a switch! Everyone seemed to relax, quiet down and present themselves in a confident way — it was apparent that they were proud and excited to be back and work as a group to create some music.

The song that they started with was “Final Countdown” by Europe. The conductor counted the band off and music filled the air… unfortunately the tempo of the music was completely wrong and dialed down from what it was meant to be. As someone who knows music, I could tell that something was off, but looking around and seeing the sour looks plastered on everyone's faces just solidified that something was wrong.

This brought a smile not only to my face but also to the conductors as he cut off the band while laughing under his breath. This was something I found quite interesting due to the fact that there was no anger or any negative emotions behind the slip-up and that there was actually a sense of goofiness behind it. There was a quick turn around and the whole band was focused once again and was able to play the song how it was intended to be played.

Throughout the night, there were other occurrences like this that kept happening, but just like the first mix-up, nothing phased the band. When mistakes were made, I was able to observe them working within their sections to fix the issue at hand. From my experiences in concert bands throughout high school, we were expected to work on it alone in our free time. Seeing that there was this chance to get help and work with everyone in their section was really refreshing. Not only that, but it is an obvious payoff because when they would play a second run of the song after these deliberations, everything seemed to be fixed and sounded amazing!

Playing the notes was not the only thing being focused on though when it came to certain songs in their set list; many of the songs included chants, dances and singing as well! The two that stuck out the most were ‘Freeze Frame’ and ‘Hey Pachuco!’ When it came to ‘Freeze Frame,’ you could not only hear the pep in the way that the band was playing and articulating the sounds, but visually they were swaying and dancing completely in sync. You could hear how this was played differently from less popular songs and it was easy to tell that this was a favorite of the bands.

‘Hey Pachuco!’ had less dancing to it when compared to ‘Freeze Frame’ but what was interesting about this run-through was the drum fill in the middle. Throughout the drum-filled measures, the whole band was hooting and hollering as if they were in a 1920s brothel. Not only was this just fun to see, but it was fascinating to watch all these wild kids yell…and the drummers not batting an eye! They hit every beat, every note and were never EVER thrown out of rhythm; they were so focused on the task at hand that not even the feral energy of the band could break their state of mind.

As the night goes on and comes to a close, faces get redder, the floors get wetter as people empty their spit valves and the smell of B.O. wafts around. Yes, it was quite ripe in the room but it was really just an indicator of how much effort and work the band puts into doing and perfecting what they love.

This was only my first outside observation of the band and it was just in their own rehearsal space! The next place that I was able to watch the band was in a public setting doing what they do best; this was at their performances at the Men and Women's hockey games that took place that upcoming weekend. If their rehearsals were full of hard work, pride, joy, sweat, tears and pep that filled the whole space…what the hell was going to happen when they had an audience!?

Game Day

Who would have known the amount of energy a bunch of college kids could have on a Friday afternoon at 1 p.m.? The buzz in the Chester Park commons was louder than T.V. static but obviously much more interesting; ‘Who are we playing today?’ ‘I really hope we win!’ ‘Do you wanna go out after the game?’ ‘Does everyone have a ride to the game?’ Once rides are set and everyone has their matching UMD pep band hockey jerseys, it is off to Amsoil Arena for the day.

The band takes its place in an empty stadium which, unfortunately, doesn’t fill up too much as the Woman’s game gets closer and closer; this just makes the presents of the pep band that much more special. The bleachers are full of instruments, full water bottles and snacks that could feed a small bear; the band came prepared and ready for the long day that they had ahead of them.

The hockey clock has been counting down for some time until it hits 43 minutes and 59 seconds. Kids start to scramble and yell: “To the queue!” They make their way up the bleachers for a walk around; this is where the band plays some fan-favorite songs and walks around the arena in hopes of hyping up all the bulldog fans. With this being a Woman’s game though, known for small turnouts, the walk-around was short and sweet. The band then made its way back to its set of bleachers.

The UMD pep band plays the ‘Star Spangle Banner’ at the Men’s Hockey Game. Photo by. Lukas Lorenz

Throughout the rest of the game, the pep band brought loads of pep and support to their fellow bulldogs! There was not a single moment that the band was still. There was constant movement — from clapping to dancing to playing their instruments WHILE dancing — the fun just didn’t end!

The band also never missed a beat and filled the silence left by the lack of a student section. The louder the band played and cheered, the harder the girls played hockey! As the first game came to a close, the UMD Women’s team won in overtime with a final score of 5-4 bulldogs.

As an outsider, it was absolutely amazing to see the band playing this Woman’s game and fill the whole stadium with their supportive sound. It just shows how much pride the pep band takes in supporting its school and fellow bulldogs especially when no one else really does.

Between the Woman’s and Men's games there was a break, and seeing the band hang out with one another, chat and act as one huge family was something so wholesome to watch. There is always a chance to start resenting or disliking the people you spend so much of your time with, but the pep band seemed to be happier that they were all together in that moment and that they were going to be together for the rest of the weekend playing.

Although this game was fun and rewarding to watch, the Men’s game had a whole different dynamic to it due to the students and outsider fans that filled up Amsoil.

Just as before with the Woman’s game, the band played their walk-around, but this was a whole different event in itself! Fans lined up all throughout the arena excitedly waiting for the band to pass them. Every person facing the band had their phones up, out and recording as they sang along to the song ‘In Heaven, There is no Beer.’

All night the band played and danced just as they had for the Woman’s team, but fans started to take more of an interest in the band during this game. Kids would walk by smiling and staring, adults would come by and tap the drum player on his shoulder to tell him how great he was doing and sometimes even the staff at Amsoil would make a pit stop to chat and congratulate the band for all their hard work.

After another hard game of playing and cheering, the Men’s team also won their game; 4-0 bulldogs!

The night was finally over and the band met up one last time as a whole to collect their hockey jerseys and make sure that everyone had a ride back to wherever they needed to be. They all buzzed with excitement that they had won and that they would once again be meeting up the following Wednesday to rehearse as they have been doing every Wednesday since the beginning of the year.

As I departed the arena and every last band kid went on to do God knows what, I was able to reflect on my week and what I observed from this group. Be proud of your craft and support your community. Every last member of the pep band played an important role in creating beautiful music and creating a tight-knit community of family, friends and the largest group of bulldog super fans I have ever seen.

Describing the Undescribable: A Descriptive Article about the UMD Athband Community