I-Light Media
There's Unity in Music
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- iLight Media
There's Unity in Music
I-Light Media
Oh that's my jam! Talk about over doing a clich. The phrase was heard so many times at the Honda Battle of the Bands it almost became a collective chant. It's understandable given the ten hottest marching bands in the land performed nothing but hot former and current jams for the packed Georgia Dome audience Saturday afternoon.
The excitement swirling around the annual event is growing at a phenomenal rate. In our first year we filled only half of the lower bowl and left 20,000 people outside admitted Honda Battle of the Bands producer Craig Cason. Now four years old, the year end finale is filling the 70,000 seat Georgia Dome to capacity.
There's so much prestige riding on the three-plus-hour event marching bands from around the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) universe begin preparing for it at the same time they welcome in new recruits (or crabs as their called on yard).
And it's not just the band members getting up for the event. The Super Bowl of Bands is talked about five months before and up to three months after in depth on The5thQuarter.com. The website founded by Michael D. Lee and Christy Walker is dedicated to preserving the history and promoting the excellence and achievements of marching bands.
Cason's excitement about the event matches that of the attendees who travel from all over the country for the invitational performance showcase. We have received a lot of group sales this year said Cason. This year the showcase included a college fair. This is a great opportunity for high school kids to learn about the schools participating and it's also a great marketing tool for the HBCUs he added.
Honda is really showing their commitment to this project, lauded Cason. Sure they could have put cars and logos all over the place, but they don't, he added. They are truly second to none.
The selection process was not an easy one for Cason and his staff. In late summer, 41 bands are notified they were selected to participate in the Celebration Tour. During the first two months of the football season, the tour visits each of the campuses where they are judged by fans, school and conference officials. Video from the tour are viewed on-line allowing fans to cast their votes electronically. The field of 41 is reduced to the final ten by mid-November. To level the playing field voting is weighted in three equal parts and two of the components (band directors/school presidents and conference commissioners) were not allowed to vote for bands in their conference.
This year's final ten were no average bunch. Three of this year's field included Clark Atlanta University, Bethune Cookman College and Florida A&M all of which performed in national television ad campaigns.
Two new participants made their debut at the showcase. Jackson State's Sonic Boom of the South and Central State's Invincible Marching Marauders cracked the lineup in hopes of making it back for year fifth year.
Before the doors opened debates raged at every entrance on who would turn the Dome out. Everybody had their favorites and they were all right.
Local radio personality Ryan Cameron got the crowd's blood pumping with a collective wave. While the crowd tuned up the ten bands fell into formation for a tribute to the victims of hurricane Katrina and Rita.
The new band on the block, Central State, took the field first followed by Clark Atlanta and Virginia State before concluding with one of the MEACs and the State of Florida's pride and joys Bethune Cookman's Marching Wildcats.
By the end of the show it was evident that three songs were on almost everyone's playlist. Jaimee Foxx's "Unpredictable", Big Boi, Killer Mike, black Owned C-bone, and Rock D's "I'm On It (aka Kryptonite), and "Dem Franchize Boys "Lean Wit' it Rock Wit' It" received as much air play from the bands as they normally get on the radio waves.
Although the showcase is over, the opinion of who was the best will continue in on-line forums like the SWAC Page, MEAC Fans, the 5th Quarter, and Onnidan over the next several weeks.