Posted on: Friday, September 12, 2003
USC marching band will be hoping game's a 'Wipeout'
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By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — The boom-boom-boom of a tuba breaks the silence in the courtyard in front of the McAlister Academic Center.
The six students in the area do not look up from their books. Nobody is surprised.
After all, to be a USC student means to have your life's soundtrack played by the USC Trojan Marching Band.
The band has entertained in China, in Germany after the fall of the wall, and at the Olympics. It has performed at a private party for a First Lady (Laura Bush) and played "Beat It" for the King of Pop (Michael Jackson). The band received two platinum awards for its work on Fleetwood Mac albums. It has performed on the "Wayne Brady Show" and the Academy Awards, but is available for weddings, birthday parties and funerals.
Most of all, the band is the featured attraction at every USC football game, playing the trademark, "Fight On," after each Trojan touchdown and first down.
"They're always fun," said Norm Chow, USC's offensive coordinator.
Chow recalled a concert in which the band "played a lot of older stuff, Ethel Merman stuff. Finally at the end, they turned around, ripped off their tuxedos — they had their SC stuff underneath — put on their sunglasses and started to play the Trojan fight song. It was really, really fun."
Kristen Pinta, a senior majoring in music, said she moved from Pittsburgh because she believed joining the USC band would provide the experience to direct a high school marching band.
"I didn't want to apply for a job and say I marched for school in Podunk, Idaho," she said. After visiting USC as a high school senior, "I knew I wanted to be a part of this," she said.
With about 250 members, the marching band is USC's largest student organization. Tony Fox, the associate director, said about 15 percent are music majors.
"We're open to any university student," Fox said.
There are no band scholarships, although an endowment provides grants of $800 a year — enough to cover books — for 80 members.
Still, there is no shortage of newcomers willing to participate in a week-long "band camp" to learn some of the basic songs and choreography (USC uses hesitation steps instead of slide steps).
Fox said the band has a songbook of 40 tunes. Five standards are used for the pregame show. The most frequently played songs are "Tribute to Troy" after outstanding defensive plays, and, of course, "Fight On."
For tomorrow's game, 30 area high school bands will perform. There will be a pregame show centering on the Hawai'i-based show "Magnum P.I.," whose star — Tom Selleck — played volleyball for the Trojans.
Fox said the band has pledged not to mock opponents "except for Cal and Stanford." Still, one of the songs in tomorrow's surf medley could provide an inadvertent message. The band is scheduled to play: "Wipeout."
