There’s just something about watching the 98 people in the Ouachita marching band perform. Maybe it’s a question of how on earth you get so many people to do something as complicated as marching with skill and precision. Maybe it’s the choice of songs, which have included hits from Offspring to Michael Jackson.
Maybe it’s the fact that the Ouachita marching band, unlike most other marching bands you’d see, has an electric guitar.
Or maybe it’s because director Robert Hesse has pulled together an incredibly diverse and talented group of people to make something truly magical.
“It’s a wide variety,” Hesse said. “We do have instrumental majors, we have vocal majors in there. We have science, history, math and so there are a lot of non-music majors in there. I’d say a majority of the band is made up of people who are non-music majors.”
Those non-music majors and music majors alike come together to form the Ouachita marching band, sometimes referred to as “Tiger Blast.”
If a reason for the moniker is needed, you only need to listen to Hesse during a rehearsal, during which he implores his students to play as loudly as possible while still maintaining good sound quality.
The result is a literal “blast” of sound that both amazes you with its musicality while gluing you to your seat. So far, it’s proven to be a good combination.
“I do get a lot of feedback,” Hesse said. “Mostly it’s e-mails or phone calls, and I’m pleasantly surprised with our last performance, which we actually got to do a pre-game and a halftime … I actually got a lot of good comments from not only students but from faculty members telling us how much they really appreciate the band.”
Of course, all that praise isn’t generated from nothing. The band puts in a lot of work before their performances. Mike Kizzar, a junior biology and music double major, said it can be tough, but the rewards far outweigh the detriments.
“Generally we’ll work four days a week on a non-show weekend … a pretty good amount of work,” Kizzar said. “It can be a little bit frustrating sometimes, because it takes up a lot of time, but most of the time I don’t mind having it taken up because I’m still hanging out with my friends.”
Josh Bland, a senior church music major, has the added responsibility of married life and getting prepared for graduation to contend with. Even so, he feels much the same way about the band’s schedule.
“We make time for it,” Bland said. “It fits. I give my best for it. I do what I can but, you know, I juggle it with everything else. Thanks to God the balls just haven’t come tumbling down yet.”
Of course, this week holds more challenge for the members of the band. In addition to their usual duties of playing for the tailgate party and football game on Saturday, they will also take the stage in the annual Tiger Tunes show.
Last year on the Tunes stage, the group performed an arrangement Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done.” What are they doing this year?
“It’s a secret,” Hesse said before laughing. “At the last football game, we played a little bit of ‘Thriller’ as our last performance, so I think our entire show for Tiger Tunes is gonna be based on ‘Thriller’ this year. I think it’ll be fun.”
The marching band will only send out 86 of its members for Tunes, according to Hesse. This seems to be more a move for space limitations than interest in the show, as the JPAC stage is literally packed even with the depleted manpower.
The show is based on the original choreography by Michael Peters from back in 1983, adapted for the Tunes stage by Laura Stoltje, a senior music education major and drum major for the marching band.
The band is impressive enough in marching with straight lines across the football field, but 86 people doing the patented “head jerk” is something else entirely.
The marching band will have a busy Saturday this week, performing for the newly christened “OcTIGER Fest,” the tailgate party, pre-game, football game and Tunes in the evening.
Just remember one thing as you watch them perform — they all come from the most diverse of backgrounds, with reasons for being in band equally varied, but the most important fact is that they come together like notes on a page with one desire — that they and their audience have a “blast.”
