Memo
From: James Barrett, student director,
Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh
Re: Picnic Day ’04 Battle of the Bands

The battle went smoothly enough. Some rain but not the torrential downpour of last year. There were Stanford, Humboldt, Cal, Irvine, UCSD and us. It was when we tried to end the battle that the problems arose.

I clearly told everyone we would end the battle at 9. Apparently this worked for Irvine and UCSD. Stanford told me they would keep playing until they were the second-
to-last, then would do their fight song.

But Humboldt decided to take us to the cleaners. So 9 o’clock rolls around, and they tell me they will keep playing until we play our fight song. Irvine and UCSD dropped out, and Cal fell a half-hour later.

Around 10 o’clock we decided to talk to them again. They copped a real attitude, yelling at me as I walked over there. I asked the Ax if they wanted to do the truce that usually ends the battle so we could get going. He said, “OK, you play your fight song, then we’ll play ours.” We kept going.
Eleven o’clock rolls around, and we are still playing. We wait for the cops to come and shut us down, but they never do. Apparently no one complained about the noise, which meant the battle could be stopped only by one band left standing. Some cops came and watched but left soon after.
By 12 o’clock all hope of attending the after-Picnic Day social event had vanished. We were in it for the long run. Stanford was pretty cool because, even though they said they wanted to be second-to-last, they finally played their fight song around 12:30. This left just us and the incredibly belligerent Lumberjacks. Every time we spoke to them they always said, “OK, play your last song, then we’ll play ours.”

One o’clock in the morning rolls around. Everyone is getting pretty angry and cranky. Our folder starts to look a little thin, so we sent our librarian to grab some new songs out of the archive in case it came to that. We started having to play our more obscure songs, but the Aggie band still sounded great. While Humboldt’s trumpet section began to crack notes, our guys wailed impossibly high parts. Our indefatigable musicians kept playing, but our song list kept dwindling.
Humboldt started taking cheap shots. They thought they could take us because they had bought those cheap song books with movie and TV themes. By the end they were all huddled around the light, sight-reading “The Adams Family” theme while we played “Classical Gas” and old fanfares. Humboldt even resorted to playing the “Let’s Go Band” high school song. If they wanted to take us, you’d think they would try to do it with some pride.

Meanwhile . . .

A select group of alumni, a few bandsmen and UCSD and Irvine were sitting around waiting at the social for everyone else to show up. They were totally unaware that we were still battling and running low on music and chops. Somehow a phone message got through. From what I’m told someone yelled, “Alumni, get back to the battle; they’re still going!”

Around 1:30 the embattled Aggie band sang the best version of the four-part harmony alma mater I have ever heard. It was cold. The Jacks kept playing the pathetic quarter-note rhythm songs.
All of a sudden down the hill run about 20 or so alumni. They immediately grab horns and start helping us out. I think this probably hurt Humboldt. They saw the new music we brought out, saw the new players. They ran out of songs and began singing, even stealing some of the band’s favorite songs in an effort to make fun of us.

They finally played their fight song around 1:45 and then slunk out in ignominious defeat. The Aggie band continued to play another four songs and concluded—finally—with “Aggie Fight.”
Congratulations to everyone who stuck around, especially the alumni who showed up. Thanks for the best Picnic Day ever.

P.S. It was a 12-hour battle. Any alumni know what the record is?