It's a typical Thursday night in Cabot Auditorium. At around 6:00 p.m., casual conversation mingles with the sounds of clarinets, saxophones, drums, trombones, trumpets and other instruments that fill the air. It's the 24 members of the Tufts Pep Band, warming up for one of their weekly practices.
Didn't know we had a pep band? Don't feel bad; most people don't. Over the years, the marching band stopped marching and evolved into the Pep Band we have today. Now that you know they exist, you should definitely check them out.
It's not too hard to find them. Although, ironically, they don't play at pep rallies, the Tufts Pep Band performs at every home football game. They sit in the stands and play a wide variety of songs to entertain the crowd during game breaks such as time-outs and halftime.
In fact, the Pep Band has a huge repertoire of songs. Funded by the TCU Senate, they buy and try out different tunes every year. Each piece gets an equal chance in a test run.
"If we like it, we keep it," Pep Band president senior Nicole Mueller said.
As of right now, the band has 45 songs it plays regularly, 30 it plays on occasion, and 100 that have yet to be used. Songs range from the "Jumbo Fight Song" to the jazz piece "Birdland," from Beatles classics to more modern tunes by Blink-182 and Smashmouth.
Knowing so many songs proves very useful come game time. The pep band doesn't enter a game with a set list of songs to play. Working as a whole with the drum major, the group looks at how much time they have and gauges the crowd's mood to determine which songs to play next.
The lack of a structured play list in no way compromises the group's proficiency. Although the band only meets twice a week for two hours, they make that time count. At practice, they go from the traditional "Star Spangled Banner" to the pop song "I Want Candy" without even batting an eye, making it evident that they know their stuff.
However, after a song is finished, the silence doesn't last long. The members clearly know how to have fun. Pep Band head of publicity, senior Michael Garshick, accurately describes his band as "laid-back."
"I started playing just to get chicks," said Garshick. "But the atmosphere of the band is so cool that I grew to really appreciate it."
According to Treasurer Kevin Johannsen, also a senior, part of the fun of Pep Band is that so many of its members were in a typical marching band in high school. Their experience here at Tufts, though, has proven to be very different from that of a strict marching band.
"We can play and have fun with it and not worry about marching or a rigorous schedule," Johannsen said. Both the choice of songs and the relaxed atmosphere lend themselves to the casual practice environment.
The Pep Band will be back in the stands this Saturday, performing during the Homecoming game. If you don't get a chance to see them this weekend, stop by any home game and check out the most versatile band on the Tufts campus.
