I am a current member and past manager of America's Pep Band (aka
the RPI Pep Band).  This topic has gotten a lot, perhaps too much
attention already, but I have a few things I want to throw in.
 
To start with, I wish to make an apology to the Brown pep-band.  They
had the misfortune last weekend to have shown up to the RPI Big Red
Freakout, and I must admit that our band was a bit rude to them.
 
In just about every case since I've been here of us being on the
road or of another band coming here, we have always made provisions
for trading cheers, trading songs, and almost always, one joint song
during the second intermission.  It being Freakout, our band played
during all breaks and straight through the intermissions, leaving the
Brown Band to attempt on its own to be heard.  I might add that in terms
of cheers that this has been true in the context of most of the playoff
games I have attended.  (The intensity level at Freakout tends to be
similar to that at playoffs, so this is understandable.)  Thus, the
self policing bit _usually_ does occur and has worked quite well in
my opinion.  Just for note, when we travelled to Colgate last year
for their Golden Cup (sorry if I got the title wrong) game, we went
knowing full well that they would try to shut us down, and to be honest
I thought they were downright rude to us, but this neither surprised us
nor really bothered us.  It comes with the territory.
 
In terms of other decorum types of things, every band I've ever
witnessed stops play when the puck is dropped if not before.  Language
is usually held to a higher code of conduct than normal fans (this
item is breaking down in our band a bit and needs to be improved.)
As was pointed out, the bands are there to have fun too, and they
tend to watch their own fairly well.
 
All this comes back to the situation with Union.  First of all, if
anyone can tell me what exactly we did that offended the people, I would
appreciate it -- I thought we were on quite good behavior that night.
Second, there was an incident between some Union fans and members of the
RPI Band at the game last year where 4 people (2 from each school) were
thrown out.  This was started when 2 union students in latex masks came
running in front of the band after a Union goal, pushing members of the
flute section back, knocking them into the bleachers.  2 members of the
band unfortunately over reacted and retaliated.  Through the whole
incident, I was offended by how we were treated by members of the
Achilles staff.  This type of conduct is not considered acceptable and
is an exception rather than the rule and I hope will not play a role
in a decision at Union. (Though I fear it will.)
 
What I have shown here is bands at their worst.  I hope I have provided
glimpses though that all in all, we're just there to have fun to and try
to be as reasonable as possible.  I think the folks at Achilles would do
well by talking to bands that arrive there (we were asked to wait for
the penalties to be called up to the announcers box before playing which
we complied with without problems).  Bans and rules should not be
allowed to replace communication and common sense with provide a
commeradery (sp?) between the most vehement of rival fans.
 
As a final note...  We too are banned from playing at UVM.  However
roughly 4 or 5 years ago members of the band made a trip up there to
cheer and managed to smuggle the instruments in (including the bass drum!!)
Once inside, they were allowed to play.  A proud bit of our band
lore here. =-)
 
--
Karl Brophey      | Ex-manager America's Pep Band
[log in to unmask]    | GO, GO, GO YOU RED, RED, RED!