MSU Band
I haven’t seen anyone make mention of it but did anyone else notice how incredibly obnoxious and annoying MSU’s Band was on Saturday night?
They were seated above us on the rim but more towards the south end zone. Every time our band would play, they’d all stand up and play. Every time the DJ was doing his thing with music, they’d start playing. Whenever we’d be on offense marching toward the south end, they’d stand up and play something just prior to our snap and when we’d score, they’d stand up and play the MSU fight song. People in our section were getting really pissed off.
We've had the seats for many years now and visiting school bands always seem to sit there but I don’t ever remember having something like this occur. Anyone else notice it? Just classic MSU juvenile behavior.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
I was seated about seven sections over toward our sideline. I would have HATED sitting in that band's section.
What I did notice is that they were playing almost up until the moment when JJ snapped the ball. I don't know if there's a written or unwritten rule about that, but the band is supposed to STFU when the play clock is running.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:09 PM ^
the band is supposed to STFU when the play clock is running.
they would literally never be able to play. ever.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:14 PM ^
"they would literally never be able to play. ever."
False. When I was in MMB we literally never once played when EITHER team's quarterback was under center. Those were the Eric Becher years, and he always flatly stated the primary purpose of the band was to support the team. But do so with dignity.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:31 PM ^
Dude...the play clock starts running as soon as the ball is set for play...not when the QB goes under center.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:36 PM ^
"Dude...the play clock starts running as soon as the ball is set for play...not when the QB goes under center."
Fair enough. We did play into the running of the play clock. I stand corrected. But, fine distinctions aside, we stopped playing when the huddle broke.
Incidentally, it was nice to hear the announcers say "it's amazing how quiet 107K can be" when M was setting up on offense. The mark of a mature crowd.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:24 PM ^
this is my point, although i guess i was incorrect. they'd have to play between the whistle blowing ending a play and when the ball was set, so they'd have at least one or two seconds. sometimes even three!
October 31st, 2022 at 3:58 PM ^
out of bounds, incomplete pass, first down move the markers, penalties, change of possession, timeouts, quarters, injuries...
October 31st, 2022 at 1:20 PM ^
I was in MMB in Fall 1981 as a freshman, and, yes, we did not play when the opposing O was getting ready to line up for a play. The ball set up and time clock were different because after an incomplete pass, it took more time to get the ball ready for play so you could easily get in one round of Lets Go Blue. Play clocks didn't start until the ref signaled ready for play. Now a play OOB gets the 40 second clock started almost immediately, where as you had more time then to play a 30-second gig.
When we stored a TD and were awaiting our own XP, we kept playing The Victors very softly, only ramping up the noise after the kick went through. The bands were very polite to each other as well - remember going to play at MSU in 1981 and after the game going to the student union to have donuts and cider with the MSU band.
I think this year's MSU band is just in a bad mood given the one signature win they have is vs. 4-4 Wisconsin and will likely miss a bowl game.
October 31st, 2022 at 4:08 PM ^
Road trip to MSU in 1981. Finally found highlights for that game a couple years ago....
October 31st, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
That’s kind of their exact job as a visiting band.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
Wow. We joke about MSU's inferiority complex but the band's behavior is another strong indication it's more than a joke.
Why else would a college marching band decide it must be deliberately and repeatedly obnoxious?
October 31st, 2022 at 12:40 PM ^
band only plays when the director tells them to ... not hard to find the obnoxious leader ! Dont blame the band members ... they follow whoever is in charge.
Go Blue!
October 31st, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
Lil bro at everything
October 31st, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
Them playing while our band plays or after a score/play for either team is whatever. The issue for me was they kept playing while our offense was on the line setting their play and wouldn’t cut the music until there was only 2-3 seconds left on the play clock. Our whole section was complaining about that. Don’t get me started about Michigan fans screaming dad rock songs while our offense was on the field and JJ & the offense are pleading with the fans to quiet down.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
Nah. Playing music for their fans to enjoy is the band's job. Of course it's obnoxious to you!
They should absolutely not be deferential to a DJ.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
Agree. If anything I think UM should have not had the DJ play over them so much.
October 31st, 2022 at 2:57 PM ^
Yeah, I agree, what? Tons of bands do this; it's just how things work. I cringe a little bit that they get the "I guess technically you can come, just don't be seen or heard" experience in the stands these days.
Respect to the SMB
October 31st, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
(Very much wish the MMB would be way less deferential to a DJ, but that was a battle that wasn't really fought when it needed to be.)
October 31st, 2022 at 12:07 PM ^
I'll be honest, I wish we could've heard the bands more. I prefer to hear the bands over that loud piped in music. And with the way the MSU band was situated way up in the corner, I imagined in my mind how cool it would've been to have some sort of back & forth "band off".
October 31st, 2022 at 1:14 PM ^
When I was in the Navy in the late 90’s I was stationed in San Diego and my ship (USS BOXER) was the host ship for the Holiday Bowl. It was awesome, Mike Bellotti and Joey Harrington’s Ducks vs. Mack Brown and Chris Simms’ Longhorns.
Anyway, the two bands went on two destroyers on the other side of the pier, and the ships were moored stern to stern. The bands each set up on the flight decks for a “band off.” Easily the coolest thing that happened that day. Oregon’s percussion was lights-out!
Mack Brown was a complete gentleman and hung around on the flight deck chatting and having a great time with Sailors and families.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:07 PM ^
i sat one row behind them. i found them to be completely unobjectionable.
if you expect them to wait for quiet moments, that ain't happening, what with the constant hip-hop shit, the on-field MC shit, and our own band. they always stopped playing once the teams were set, before the snap. i was talking to them all game long, and not impacting play is one of their rules.
if you're going to invite them, and you should, you can't expect them not to play. sorry.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:17 PM ^
Bingo... and to be honest, I was in section 6, last row before the suites started and they were not THAT loud for me. I can't imagine they were that loud on the field, much less in the lower parts of the bowl.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:07 PM ^
I'm not sure what the protocol is, but when I watch SEC and some HBCU games, it seems like the bands play almost to the snap. I heard what you're describing and thought it was odd for a B1G game. If it goes against protocol, then add it to the list Warde is putting together for Kevin Warren.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:08 PM ^
Sparty gonna Sparty. I wasn't aware of all the crap they pulled when I posted we should keep the rivalry, and I got negged well, and deserve it. I now change my stance.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:08 PM ^
I thought it was nice of them to serenade us while their team got whomped. It didn’t seem to slow our offense one bit.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:09 PM ^
That is the responsibility of one individual: the conductor. His behavior, if inappropriate, needs to be reported to the Big Ten. This is the type of thing the Big Ten would have the spine to correct, since nobody really cares all that much about a band director getting scolded.
I believe it would be David Thornton being the unprofessional individual deserving of condemnation, and then Kevin Sedatole as the boss of the problem person.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:09 PM ^
if they didn't attack anyone.... they have a little more class than the football team.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
They were doing it back when I was in the MMB in the late 90s. It's what bands do.
Marching bands don't get many opportunities to be publicly rowdy, and there are only so many opportunities to play, so rivalry games where you try to drown out the other band is the closest they get to having an "opponent".
Yet the MMB regularly collaborates with the OSU and MSU bands, so it's a friendly part of the rivalry. If the MSU band was getting under your skin in the Big House, you need to tell the MMB to bring it next time!
Also, FFS. . . two of our players were attacked and your complaint is the MSU band?
October 31st, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
Are visiting bands sitting in the stands a permanent thing now?
The visiting bands sat on the field for 90 years. Then covid happened and they got moved to the nosebleed section. OSU got bitchy about it last year and claimed we stuck them up there to be assholes but lots of schools bring their bands to the big house and they’ve all got the same treatment.
I don’t think it’s necessary anymore. Just move the bands back to the field.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:43 PM ^
"I don’t think it’s necessary anymore. Just move the bands back to the field."
Agreed. Please do.
When I was in MMB nearly all the opposing bands behaved. Minnesota was the classiest, but even MSU was okay.
Wisconsin, however, consisted of a bunch of thugs. Strange but true.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:26 PM ^
yup, there's a reason (lots of them, actually) that we don't invite the wisconsin band to play during their games here. i think (not sure this is the case) that they're the only big ten school that doesn't get invited.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:52 PM ^
Wow that's wild. I'd be curious if you know the reasons or have any stories about them.
I would expect OSU to be on that list with their hazing history, despite their talent.
October 31st, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
"Wow that's wild. I'd be curious if you know the reasons or have any stories about them."
Well, back in the 80s, the Wisconsin band was essentially a fraternity in the Animal House sense. They would go into opponent's halls singing sordid paradies of the opposition fight song. I heard them all, but I only remember one, which was a parody of their own fight song. They gleefully sang:
"F- a virgin! F- a virgin! Plunge into her...."
That's all I remember. The males sang gleefully, and the females didn't appear to object. They also vandalized the band hall of, I believe, Ohio State. They came to UM and our director, Eric Becher, had all the males in the band of any physical stature assigned at various points to protect the band hall. They sang their songs in Revelli Hall but recognized they were under watch and didn't do anything objectionable. We just kept a respectful distance.
Incidentally, a female friend of mine from high school was one of their band leaders at the time and seemed to enjoy the environment, which still gives me sad.
October 31st, 2022 at 2:31 PM ^
Granted, the 80s were different times.
A good friend of mine from MMB had a full-ride engineering grad scholarship at Stanford. He went to the first rehearsal of their band, and up front a prominent poster read: "No fat chicks!" He respectfully dismissed himself, in spite of the open keg.
October 31st, 2022 at 3:20 PM ^
thanks for the insight on wisconsin - my partners son was an MMB bone a few years back and the stuff he'd heard about wisconsin was so bad he didn't even like talking about it.
still, the stanford band is worse, in some ways...they're completely, willfully, disorganized, which, fine. i guess, it's a schtick. the whole thing just smells of "hey, we're way too cool for this shit, unlike you morons. aren't we smart?" too clever by half. incidentally, the tree just got suspended, not for the first time.
just a bunch of assholes.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:19 PM ^
I don't know the answer to your question, but consider that there were ~250 less Sparty fans in the building as a result of this. So, while it's certainly annoying to have to sit in front of that noise, at least there were fewer Sparties to be riled up.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:18 PM ^
I was in section 9 below them and didn't find them obnoxious.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:22 PM ^
I noticed it a lot however they also seemed to enjoy every time we made a first down or even a score they'd just take off and start playing. I actually enjoyed the annoyance on Saturday. They literally played up until we snapped the ball at least twice, however it felt like they were giving us a boost, most times. Oh well what do we expect it's, MSU
October 31st, 2022 at 12:25 PM ^
I was on the other side of the stadium behind the Michigan bench. We never heard the MSU band. We saw them. Maybe it was because the DJ was drowning them out or the fans were so loud.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:30 PM ^
Just like all weight gain/loss during the off season is a good thing, I'll view all nuisances to the team for a game in which we got the W as a good thing. It will prep them for all the nuisances on steroids that they are bound to face in Columbus. God help us if both teams are 11-0 going into that game; there will be no limits to the shenanigans that Buckeye nation will be motivated to pull off. My memory could be off but I think the last (only?) time that was the case, our team was subject to a bomb search with K-9 units. Am I mis-remembering?
October 31st, 2022 at 1:30 PM ^
My memory could be off but I think the last (only?) time that was the case, our team was subject to a bomb search with K-9 units. Am I mis-remembering?
No misremembering. You got it.
MSC also sent out a campus wide email about staying safe and the government was bringing in an extra 100 federal agents for security.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:34 PM ^
I genuinely think they don’t understand why this behavior makes them little brother. They really think they’re sticking it to the man.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:03 PM ^
I never heard them playing, I was across the stadium from them.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:14 PM ^
Ban the MSU band from coming to Michigan Stadium for a couple of years. Sparty will then do the same to the Michigan band but it would be no big deal.
BTW: There were tens of thousands of sparty fans walking around the stadium area before the game, tailgating included. They acted confident their team was going to win the game. I asked several of them who walked by me if they had tickets to the game and nearly all of them said no. I almost said, well-get the Fck out of here.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:26 PM ^
My tix are in section 17 and we were complaining the entire time. Can't imagine how annoying it would have been to be sitting that close to them.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:30 PM ^
it was loud, but i didn't find them even slightly annoying.
honestly? the most annoying part of sitting there was the really overpowering amount of weed smoke that came from the michigan fans a couple rows away from us. that, and about four totally shitfaced michigan fans that kept falling into me and my partner. i'd take the sparty band over those assholes every time.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:54 PM ^
A few trashy MSU fans near me were vaping what smelled like weed all game.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:27 PM ^
I noticed it on TV that a couple of times they were playing when JJ was calling signals.
October 31st, 2022 at 4:15 PM ^
I kind of think this reaction is tempered by the fact that there are some college bands that play constantly, all game, contextually to what's going on with the play on the field. OSU is like that, ND, MSU, USC, a lot of SEC bands, they play all the time.
Even before the move to the DJ, the MMB wasn't one of those bands. It relied more on drum cadences to fill time, when other bands would be playing. It sticks out for us more when an always-playing band shows up and does what they always do.