15 Bands

That's how many high school marching bands performed at the Newsday Marching Band Festival at Hofstra University last night. This was the third night of the festival, which has been held for almost 50 years. A Marine Corps marching band from Athens, GA began the evening with a multifaceted performance. The school bands ranged from small to large, growing in size as the night went on. Most of them did an excellent job, and I was really impressed with the showmanship...singing, dancing, rapping, cheering, clapping, ad libbing...in addition to turning out some fabulous tunes. A lot of classic rock was played, and quite a few numbers were not natural choices in my mind for a marching band. These are just a handful I recall off the top of my head.

• Free Bird (trumpet solo replaced the guitar solo towards the end)
• Who Are You (but no one yelled "who the $%#@ are you")
• Come Sail Away (yes, Styx, that's right)
• Beat It (as part of an entire Michael Jackson tribute set)
• Back in Black (dancers really got into this one)
• and perhaps the most surprising...in a montage of KISS music, following Rock and Roll all Night, they immediately mellowed out with "Beth" before pumping up the volume again

Very exciting and enjoyable evening! I have to admit that it wasn't much fun waiting half an hour for the buses to return to the high school so I could take my son home...since it was too cold to take a snooze in the car...and after arriving home at 12:30 it wasn't even exciting or enjoyable for this early morning enthusiast to wake up at 05:30.

My son is the real trooper, though; after school there's a pep rally at 5pm followed by a football game so he won't get home until after 10pm most likely. Oh to be young and have lots of energy! (maybe)