Floor shows and more in store for basketball season

Thursday, October 30, 2008

 

Look for Purdue’s basketball bands – Boiler Brass and Gold and Black Sound – to have a significant presence in Mackey Arena as basketball season begins. The men’s first exhibition game is Friday, Oct. 31, with the women offering the public their first peak at the team on Sunday, Nov. 9.

For the first time ever, Pam Nave will create an original six-minute floor show for Gold and Black Sound to perform at the Dec. 13 Purdue vs. Iowa women’s basketball game. Nave is still playing with ideas for show themes, but “of course it will contain a Block P,” she says.

Nave is working with athletics to develop a Band Day for Women’s Basketball. This year, special invitations are being sent to high schools across the state encouraging pep band musicians to attend the Dec. 13 game. Based on the response, Nave will move towards developing an actual pep band event inspired by Purdue’s high school marching band event held during football season. Each fall since 1954, marching bands from across the state have been invited to attend Band Day at Ross-Ade and participate in a massed band halftime show.

The drum line feature from the Penn State halftime show, “Dancing With the Band,” will also be featured at halftime of both a men’s and women’s basketball game. Pam Nave has already arranged for the drum line to appear at the Purdue vs. Ohio State women’s game on Jan. 25 and is negotiating a date for an appearance at a men’s game.

 Gold and Black Sound will once again wear their No. 10 jerseys at games. They picked 10 because that’s the number Coach Sharon Versyp wore when she played for Purdue.

You can also expect to see Boiler Brass in their “Paint Crew” shirts, shorts and famous bumblebee socks. Director Max Jones says, “It’s going to be a super band this year to match the team.”

If you get to your seats early, listen for a new Boiler Brass opener for the set that begins 30 minutes before game time. Jones has developed a Dixieland combo within the band that will start things off with “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The full band eventually joins in and opener finishes with a rousing rendition of “Swing, Swing, Swing,” another football season favorite.

Both bands will return their respective traditions to the court. Gold and Black Sound presents “Tuba Hail” just prior to the start of the game. Boiler Brass executes “Trombone Suicide” to “The Horse” during the first called time out of the second half.

 

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