2006-2007

Artist's rendering of the 2006-2007 officers

Conductor: Dan Schwarting
Managers: Chris Behrens, Gary Russinko
Freakout opponent: SLU (tied 3-3, kept the streak going at 12-0-5)
Gift: Red beanie

Road Trips

October 28-29, 2006: Governor's Cup

The band carpooled 45 members to the Pepsi Arena in Albany (now the Times Union Center) on October 28th and 29th for the first annual Governor's Cup tournament. RPI advanced to the championship game after winning over Union in a shootout, and then beat Colgate 2-1 the next night to win the first Governor's Cup. When the members of the band split up to go back to their cars after cheering on the team following the Saturday game, Russ, a freshman sousaphone, accidentally followed the wrong group to a car which was already full of people. After a few frantic calls and about half an hour, Russ got back to RPI, but the whole experience seemed to turn him off to the pep band, and he has not been to an event since. For the rest of the season, band members would harass the managers after leaving rest stops and malls, saying that we had to go back - we forgot Russ again.

November 10, 2006: Northford Ice Pavilion

The band traveled by bus on this Friday for a day trip to a women's game against Quinnipiac with a band about 20 strong. There seemed to be a pretty even split between RPI and Quinnipiac fans at the game. Since the Northford Ice Pavilion only seats about 700 (on only one side of the rink, no less) the band sounded really loud. We knew this because when we played the anthems with Quinnipiac's band, some of our players were noticeably flinching for each cymbal crash. A lot of the band was singing along with the songs on the PA system the whole night, especially "Sweet Caroline" and "Build Me Up Buttercup" (twice - the Quinnipiac band played it once as well). Dan was harassed by the Qunnipiac mascot, a bobcat, early in the game but less so as it became evident that we were going to win. We went on to win the game 5-1 for the women's first ever ECAC victory, and when we went to cheer on the team they were very appreciative that we had made the trip, saying that it felt like a home game.

December 9, 2006: Women's Hockey @ Union

Carpooled over to Union for women's hockey. The team won 5-1 to complete their first ECAC weekend sweep. While cheering on the team after the game, the members of the band were invited to a hockey party that evening, though taking this as nothing more than an offhand comment, none of the members of the band actually went to the party.

January 13, 2007: Men's Hockey @ Union

Carpooled over to Union before classes started for men's hockey. The team won 3-2, and told the band that it felt like a home game.

January 27, 2007: Men's Hockey @ Brown

Men's hockey one night stand to Brown (Won 4-3). The Brown Pep Band was playing for a basketball game that night, so our band was the only one present. The coach and team later commented on how good it felt to skate on to away ice hearing their fight song over everything.

February 2-3, 2007: Denausible Pliability

Overnight to Dartmouth (Lost 5-2) and Harvard (Lost 3-1). Before the Friday night game, the band met Dartmouth's band for a pizza dinner at Everything but Anchovies in Hanover. Both bands had fun, and the pizza wasn't half bad either. After finishing the pizza, the band headed to the Thompson Arena, where the band was afforded the rare luxury of being seated above the glass. Dartmouth's band provided entertainment during the second period break (for both fans and the pep band) by marching around the top of the arena playing a number of songs, including Louie, Louie. While waiting for to cheer on the team after the game, the band took advantage of the snow that had been falling for during the game by having a snowball fight and finding the snowiest hill in the immediate area to push the managers down.

The return to the hotel in White River Junction took a little longer than normal as the snow on the highway kept the bus to about 30 mph, but once everyone was safely back at the hotel, the band had a party in one of the rooms which was unoccupied as there were fewer people on the road trip than had been anticipated. The highlights of the evening included one of the managers saying, "We've got to maintain denausible pliability," in reference to the fact that the officers of the pep band are technically unaware that anyone had brought "party fixins'" on the trip, and a man who came to the door of the room about halfway though the evening. At first many members of the band feared that someone from the management, or possibly upstairs, had come to quiet the party. Fortunately, he was rooming upstairs, heard our party, had had a bad day, and wanted some beer. He paid $5 for two Coors Lights, and was on his way.

After a complementary breakfast at the hotel the next morning, the band headed down to Cambridge to kill time before that evening's game against Harvard. At the game, the band were joined by ~50 members of the Red Army who had chartered a bus to bring them to the game. The team didn't fair any better than it had the night before, and some members of the band became frustrated with the Red Army when they became completely unresponsive to the band's attempts to start cheers in the 3rd period.

March 2-4, 2007: The Ultimate Home Ice Advantage!

The band traveled to Hamilton, NY for the first round of the ECAC playoffs against Colgate. We stayed at the White Eagle Conference Center 3 miles out of Hamilton Center. At the game, the team played well but just couldn't get enough offense going to get the win. The Colgate band was as always accommodating, and we were even greeted by signs that said "Reserved for the RPI Band". One of the more amusing, albeit offensive, on ice promotions that we had seen all year was the turkey bowling that occurred on this night. The contestant was given a turkey and had to knock over the five pins from about 10 feet to win. After the team lost, we cheered them on and we went back to the hotel where a party ensued.

On the second day, half of the band spent the afternoon at Sangertown Mall in New Hartford, NY. The other half bussed over to Utica to tour the Matt Brewing Co., which brews Saranac as well as a few other beers under contract. At the game, we played I'm a Believer with the Colgate band. Eugene Binda, Jr. was the ref for the game, and got in the bad graces of Colgate early as RPI was often on the power play. In the second period, after he waived what appeared to be a goal that hit the center post and bounced back out (according to our band, the fans behind the goal, and the goal judge apparently) that would have given RPI the lead at 2-1, Binda started to even out the calls between the teams. This led to Colgate playing Three Blind Mice as the refs came out in the 3rd period, only to be joined by our band. Also making an appearance in the 2nd period break was a fan who felt the need to wave his arms behind Dan as he was conducting a song. After the team lost, we cheered them on, sang the Alma Mater and gave 6 of the hockey t-shirts to the graduating seniors as a gift from the band.

March 17, 2007: Safety Band!

In the week prior to this game we found out that Quinnipiac would be playing in the ECAC final four, and offered to put up their band to try to make it easier for them to make it up to the games (at this point in their history they had very little funding, making road trips nearly impossible for them). In response, the band let us know that their Athletic Director wouldn't let them do this, as they were slated to take a bus to and from the first game with other Quinnipiac fans, so they unfortunately would not be able to spend the night. However, they asked us if a few members of our band would like to join them to play with them, since Quinnipiac was going on spring break at the time and they were only expected to bring a 10 member band. Of course the band accepted this invitation and was excited to meet up with the Quinnipiac band again and to see some quality playoff hockey.

The game we were to play at was Quinnipiac against SLU. However, a snowstorm ripped through the Capital Region on the day of that game, dropping more than a foot of snow. As a precaution, Quinnipiac canceled the bus trip to Albany, and whole thing was off. However, Quinnipiac went on to beat SLU 4-0 that night (a surprising outcome against a SLU team that was solid for most of the year), and the Quinnipiac administration quickly threw together a trip to the championship game the next day against Clarkson. The Quinnipiac band informed us that their offer stood for the next day, as they were only planning on bringing 7 people this time due to the people who had already left for spring break.

So on 12 hours notice, 16 members of the RPI band held an impromptu rehearsal to learn Quinnipiac's fight song (a rather infamous ditty) and carpooled over to the Times Union Center to join the Quinnipiac band. We had to move over there in shifts, because some members of the band had bought tickets for the weekend to see the rest of the games. When we got to the game and met up with their band we exchanged music and decided we would play from both sets. Dan Schwarting and Kelsey Oliver (Quinnipiac's conductor) traded off conducting duties throughout the game. The Cup Band, being their classy selves, started up chants of "safety band", and chanted "RPI sucks" whenever an ad for our summer program came on over the PA. Someone from the Quinnipiac band made a response, "Everybody knows....(Clarkson blows....)", which we will definitely use again in the future. During the second period break we played a short Hail, which apparently infuriated the Cup Band. The game overall was excellent, played at a quick pace with high powered offenses on both sides. Unfortunately Clarkson came back from a 2-0 deficit in the 3rd period to win 4-2, sending 2 ECAC teams to the NCAAs instead of the 3 that would have been had Quinnipiac won. The Quinnipiac fans were generally appreciative of our band helping out Quinnipiac's (Clarkson fans not so much). All in all it was a great experience, and the RPI and Quinnipiac bands were planning on meeting up again before the end of the 2006-2007 school year, but scheduling problems kept that from happening.

Playoffs

Football

• ECAC Northeast Championship Game @ Cortland State: Won 26-7. The band was unable to go to the game due to a lack of available buses.

Hockey

• Women's ECAC Playoffs - Round 1: @ Dartmouth: Lost in two games, 3-6, 1-3. The band was unable to go to the games as they conflicted with the last home weekend for the men's team. Plans were afoot to carpool out to the third game of the series, but since there wasn't a third game, the band didn't go.
• Men's ECAC Playoffs - Round 1: @ Colgate: Lost in two games, 1-3, 1-4.

Other

• Held first 100% Natural Noise NRB event on August 26.
• Performed in the Uncle Sam Day Parade for the second year in a row.
• Played at the 2nd Annual RPI Redhawk Rumble, a wrestling tournament, in the Armory on November 19.
• Recorded tracks for a second CD.
• Hosted the Clarkson Pep Band on January 19.
• Hosted the Colgate Pep Band on February 9. With the permission of the administration, we put them up for the night in the Union.
• Hosted the Cornell Pep Band on February 10.
• Performed at the Accepted Students Celebration and handed out over 800 fliers to potential new members.
• Played in the RMA Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Concert for the first time.
• Performed at RPI's second annual Relay for Life and fielded the band's first team to participate in the event on April 28-29.

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