ISU press conference about band situation
- Thread starter spierceisu
- Start date
If they wandered off while supposed to be at march without orders from one of their directors, staff members, a drum major, or one of their line captains?
Because they thought they saw a better way around?
Yes, they would.
You seem to think they had perfect information about what was ahead of them and how there were easier, safer routes around. I am sure few of them knew.
So they did the best thing they knew how to do and what they were taught --
Stay together and keep each other safe.
The problem was with whoever wanted to use that gate, not the kids in the band. The band is not a fan club. You do what you are told as much as the football team does.
So how about swinging their instruments around? Were they instructed to do that to? Just a bunch of kids ordered into a bad situation, who figured they may as well play the fight song and swing around their instruments while they are at it.
Safety measures. And how can a band that is playing a loud song even hear “verbal abuse”?
When you get toward the back of the band, all you can really see are the people directly in front of you. You don/
Also, once you're after the first couple ranks, all you can see are the people in front of you. Those in the middle/back didn't have x-ray vision--they couldn't see what was going on. And regardless, there's no realistic way to force the 100 people behind you to turn around and go a different way. You're stuck. You have to stick with the group.
I don't understand why so many of you are so eager to attack the individual members of Iowa's marching band. It's pretty disgusting.
Also, once you're after the first couple ranks, all you can see are the people in front of you. Those in the middle/back didn't have x-ray vision--they couldn't see what was going on. And regardless, there's no realistic way to force the 100 people behind you to turn around and go a different way. You're stuck. You have to stick with the group.
I don't understand why so many of you are so eager to attack the individual members of Iowa's marching band. It's pretty disgusting.
A few horn swings would not have been a problem if somebody did not march them into a crowd.
I have a question. Does Iowa usually march with their Sousaphones in the front of the band? It seems to me that most bands when they are in a parade formation have the sousaphones at or near the back. Maybe they used their swinging Sousaphones intentionally to clear a path?
I have Googled a few videos of the Iowa band and have yet to see them march with the sousaphones at the front of the band.
Edit: also notice that they start swinging their sousaphone forward right as they enter the crowd and not before.
I have Googled a few videos of the Iowa band and have yet to see them march with the sousaphones at the front of the band.
Edit: also notice that they start swinging their sousaphone forward right as they enter the crowd and not before.
Last edited:
This whole thing becoming a huge national news story is just becoming dumber and dumber. Sucks that ISU got it's name dragged through the mud.
So compound a mistake made by your director by further being disrespectful to those around to swing your instrument? Got it.
You think they broke rank storming the beaches of Normandy? If someone goes down, next man up, and you keep pushing forward.
This is a response when the fact they were playing their instruments and swinging them around doesn't fit your narrative that they are just kids who were marching as ordered.
Whoever ordered a drum cadence and/or a roll-off into a fight song made a bad call. Additional noise and movement in that circumstance was a stupid idea, but the rank-and-file band members have no control over that. They get all their orders from the drumline.
You can march in/out with just a bass beat to keep tempo and nothing else.
We sure did in and out of Kinnick. Being as discreet as possible.
The kids in the back were doing what they were told when they started playing and doing horn swings. Those are cued by the drumline, which are taking orders from somebody, likely a drum major, who is likely taking orders from the directors.
Exactly, If I go up to someone and push them down, and they get up and give me a shove back, do I get to claim assault? Is that the world we live in now?
The horn swings would be standard for whatever cadence/song they are doing. The question would be why they are doing it. The one time I was in the band in Iowa City we parked at the dental college and marched to the stadium. This "march" consisted of snare taps as the directors would not allow us to do any normal cadences or Fights as they did not want to further provoke any bad behavior. Why the HMB could not do that for a 60 yard journey is the real question if it did happen.
Some of you guys should stop arguing on here and just start sending emails to band directors with your wonderful opinions on what they should and shouldn’t do. It would at least be a more productive use of everyone’s time.
I don’t even know why half of you are arguing, we’re all on the same side. Explaining how a marching band operates is only to emphasize how bad of a decision their director made in sending them out the wrong way, not excuse them.
I don’t even know why half of you are arguing, we’re all on the same side. Explaining how a marching band operates is only to emphasize how bad of a decision their director made in sending them out the wrong way, not excuse them.
Count me out of any group that requires being a mindless lemming smashing into a crowd of 10,000 people.
If that's all bands in the universe than take that as a dig of all bands in the universe.
Somehow I think reality is that most people in charge of a marching band don't send them into a shoulder to shoulder crowd of 10k and ask them to blow their instruments in people's face.
