Follow the Show Band as we prepare for the season, attend camps, rehearse through the heat, the rain, and the mud, and compete across the Northwest. The Kamiak Show Band is Kamiak High School's largest team, made up of 150-200 members from Mukilteo, WA. Currently under the direction of Toby Bathurst, the band competes in the Open Class of the NWAPA Circuit.
Today was the last Tuesday practice of the season. Unfortunately, the rain was not on our side today, but we were lucky enough to have indoor space.
We started off with split music warm-up. The brass were in the PAC Auditorium with Nick. The woodwinds were in a PAC classroom. The band room was occupied by the battery.
Mr. Bathurst was able to gain use of the Auxiliary Gym, so after music warm-ups we had a choreography session with the visual staff from 6-7:15. We learned a lot of new choreography for the end of the show that we are excited to put onto the field on Thursday.
From 7:30 to 8:30 we all gathered in the PAC Auditorium to rehearse the music and put the minor adjustments together. It was pretty loud sometimes!
Hopefully the weather will be a bit better for Thursday's rehearsal before we head down to Oregon this weekend.
A video of our Prelims performance yesterday at the Everett Show.
Video and photos courtesy of Cynthia Davis
Traditionally, the Puget Sound Festival of Bands is a favorite among students. Because we do not host our own show and this one is so close to home, we think of the Everett Show as our "home show." Many former band students come out to watch us perform each year. From 1994-1997 the PSFOB was actually held at Goddard Memorial Stadium, which goes to show how meaningful this perfomance is for Kamiak students (for a history of PSFOB click here).
At 9:00AM we showed up at Kamiak for a morning rehearsal on the turf field. It was raining pretty hard, and we were a little worried about how the weather would be for our performances. We ended practice an hour early, at eleven, so that we would have time to dry off before leaving for Everett.
At 1:30PM the buses departed for Everett Memorial Stadium, and by 2:30PM Kamiak was in uniform and ready for warm-ups.
Our prelims performance was scheduled for 3:54PM, and we walked off of the field knowing that it had been our best perfomance in uniform. After our performance we took a group picture. Prelims scores were announced with Kamiak taking second place both overall and in the Open Class, receiving a score of 85.05. We also received the awards for High Percussion and High Color Guard.
Dinner break was until 7:15. Our finals performance was at 8:24PM. Warm-ups went really well and there was a lot of excitement among band members. We felt good about our performance.
After finals we returned to camp briefly to put away our instruments and then headed out to full retreat. We received medals for second place which were given to us by members of Cascade's band.
Sweepstakes- Central Valley 89.35 2nd Place- Kamiak 87.08 3rd Place- Sunset 86.08 Kamiak also took the People's Choice award and the awards for High Colorguard and High Percussion.
Thank you to everyone who came out to the competition!
This post will be updated throughout the day.
9:00AM Rehearsal at Kamiak on the turf. Worked through the closer, the intro, and a bit of the Ravel before a full run.
11:15AM Rehearsal ended a bit early due to the rain so we have time to dry off before we leave at one thirty.
1:37 Buses leave Kamiak
2:00 Buses arrive in Everett
5:25 Kamiak placed second (only losing to Central Valley) with a score 85.05. We took high percussion and best colorguard. Our finals performance is at 8:24PM
Kamiak finishes with Second Place, High Percussion, High Colorguard, and the People's Choice Award. Thanks to everyone who came out to support!
Tonight we hit the field on a Friday for the fist time in a long time.
Nick Benson met early with quite a few of our members to work on choreography. It was definitely much improved and should look great tomorrow!
Most of rehearsal was spent reviewing and perfecting the Closer. This was followed by a quick music warm-up. Calvin, one of our favorite staff members, came in from college and showed up at our rehearsal tonight. We are thrilled to have him back for the weekend. After music warm-up we moved onto the turf to finish off the last half hour of rehearsal.
Tonight's rehearsal was definitely not our best, and it was frustrating for everyone. Nick gave us a talk before our run-through and we are ready to show up tomorrow morning and have the best rehearsal and performance yet.
We are very excited to be hosting Central Valley High School for the competition this weekend. CV took first place at the NWAPA Championships last year. Each of the Kamiak sections put together treats for the corresponding CV sections as a way of welcoming them to our school. We also invited them out to watch our run-through at the end of the evening, and allowed them to use our field for their senior ceremony. We are excited to cheer them on tomorrow and to watch one of the best bands in the northwest perform!
Our last official football game was tonight, and it was by far the most memorable game! The Kamiak football team beat Snohomish 35-21 in a well-played game.
Because the game was on a Thursday night, the student section was a lot smaller than usual, but the Pep Band had no problem stepping it up. Despite the smaller crowd, this game was particularly rowdy and was the highlight of four years of football games for most seniors. We were on our feet the enitre time, and joined the cheerleaders in cheering our team to victory.
Our halftime run-through was one of our best football performances, and we are getting excited for the Everett show this weekend! After a well-deserved third quarter break the pep band returned to the stands and Mr. Bathurst graciously allowed the seniors to pick their favorite songs for their final quarter. Two of the tunes chosen were "Louie, Louie" and "You Can Call Me Al."
After the game while students were packing up, a few Snohomish football players spoke with two band members. They said that our band was very good, that we were better than many of the other pep bands, and that they enjoyed our playing. The seniors were the last to leave the stadium. Several stayed behind in the stands to reflect on their experiences over the last four years at Frank Goddard Memorial Stadium. Another group of band kids were having a dance party in the parking lot to celebrate. Overall it was a great night for everyone who attended and is something we will all remember for years to come.
A handful of our winds showed up today at 4:30 to learn choreography for the end of the show with Nick Benson. It was really helpful because we were able to focus on dot cleaning during rehearsal.
At five thirty we started practice with a warm-up lap and basics block. We quickly moved into visual sectionals, where we learned choreography for the beginning of the show. This was followed by a brief music warm-up in sectionals. The remainder of the evening was spent cleaning up the first half of our show. The weather held out for rehearsal.
We have a football game this Thursday. Our next rehearsal is Friday.
Saturday is the Everett Show.
Yesterday was our fourth fooball game. The band arrived at around 6:15 to change into uniform and warm-up. We then marched into the stands to take our usual place next to the student section. Since it was Senior Night, we waited while they recognized all of the senior football players and cheerleaders. We then played The Star Spangled Banner followed by the Kamiak Fight Song to kick off the game.
It wasn't raining very hard, so we left the stands with about five minutes left in the second quarter to warm-up for our halftime performance. As we marched onto the field they announced the names of the Show Band seniors. For the past three games we have performed the Intro and the Ravel since the entire show is too long. This time we peformed the Ravel, the Tango, and the Closer. It was very exciting to show the school a different portion of our show. As soon as we had finished the show the dance team joined us on the field and we played "Runaway Baby" by Bruno Mars for their routine.
We took third quarter off to get dinner from the weenie wagon (thanks parent volunteers!) and to take a break from pep music. We finished off fourth quarter by playing some of our favorite pep tunes such as "Land of 1000 Dances" and "You Can Cal Me Al."
Kamiak ended up winning the game against Cascade. The student body stormed the field and then the football team came and joined us for the fight song.
