Riding the wave of success after its “Party Rock Anthem” performance went viral on YouTube a month ago, the Ohio University Marching 110 will perform its annual Varsity Show Saturday.
Presented by the School of Music, the show will feature every song the band has played on the field this year. The performance will also honor its senior band members.
“The Varsity Show is a review of the season’s music performed, and it has been a tradition for us since 1968,” said Richard Suk, director of the Marching 110. “Instead of playing for 12 minutes at halftime, the band will entertain for two hours.”
Instead of marching, the band will be seated on the stage of the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. For the upbeat charts that involve dancing, select upperclassmen will take the front of the stage to perform the band dances.
“I love being so close to the audience in this show,” said Rachel Fleig, a sophomore euphonium player. “There’s so much energy and I can hear the applause a lot better. It’s harder to hear when everyone is in the stands.”
Though the performance typically attracts local fans of the Marching 110 and Ohio athletics, it also has drawn large groups of high-school students from throughout the state to attend, said Seth Winegardner, senior field commander.
“A lot of those kids look up to us,” he said. “It’s nice to show them that, in two or three years, they can be where we are.”
Winegardner serves as the head of more than 50 other student leaders in the Marching 110. The band consists of 33 music majors and 191 non-music majors.
“Our goal for this show is to get everything down musically but still have fun,” he said.
Suk said the Varsity Show typically sells out the 2,500 seats in Mem Aud, but he hopes the spread of the viral video will bring other people to the concert.
“Every time we perform, someone in the stands ends up filming it and it might end up on YouTube,” Suk said. “It’s just funny that, that particular performance blew up on the Web.”
kr257109@ohiou.edu
