The Blue & White

by Kai Patterson, Eleanor Kreisz, Kaylie Lam, and Chloe Cochrane

The Methuen High School Ranger Marching Band had their first performance of the 2023 season at the Methuen High School football game on September 15, 2023. They performed their first song and half of the second. All was well until, during the performance, a loud squealing sound began to cover the noise of the band.

As it turns out, a football referee had left their microphone on by accident. The feedback from the microphone made it incredibly difficult to hear the band’s performance. Pit senior, Sam Eap, was disappointed that the crowd couldn’t hear the music stating, “I was going to go crazy. The feedback threw me off. And I knew my freshman who was at our keyboard was probably freaking out. So my biggest thing was to play super loud over it to block most of it out. Overall if the mic feedback didn’t happen, I would’ve been pretty satisfied with my kids.”

The disappointment over the feedback extended throughout the band and the crowd. The microphone was found and turned off shortly after the band finished their performance. It was definitely a way to kick off the season.

The MHS marching band has been practicing since early this July to put out their show, “Bond”. The show is themed off of the James Bond film series and is centered around the idea of the band and color guard being spies- throughout the show, the two groups hassle over a briefcase, adding to the mysterious theme of the show.

The show begins with the song “Golden Eye” from the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. The band and guard mingle in a dance feature while saxophone soloist Riley Lyons plays. The solo is followed by another one- flute soloist Emmanuel Katulege- before the music gets significantly more intense as the briefcase is snatched from the band.

Movement one ends suspensefully and is followed by a combination of the songs “Die Another Day” and “Casino Royale” in movement two. The color guard, on rifle, loses the briefcase to the band and have to fight for it back, establishing the theme of the second song. Music-wise, song two is the hardest to play, but the band displays great drive. The color guard takes the briefcase back with special acrobatics from Quinn Plunkett. The song ends with an impactful rifle toss from the color guard as the band impressively forms “007”- James Bond’s code number.

Movement three features the song “Skyfall” by popular artist Adele and features a saxophone solo played by Riley Lyons as well as a trumpet solo played by Sarah Baylis. Movement three is known as the ballad of the show and is a slower mix with powerful hits throughout the song. Uncommonly, the drumline moves up to the front at the beginning of movement three, and three members of drumline join the color guard on sabre for movement three.

Movement four, the final movement of the show, features the song “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney and Wings. Movement four starts slow but soon picks up speed. And with the drumline moving back to the back of the field and the color guard with the briefcase safe in their hands, the band is able to end strongly and proudly despite being exhausted after performing for 7 minutes straight. Truly an amazing end for a James Bond themed show.

The marching band competes with other bands under NESBA, the New England Scholastic Band Association, and is scored in 3 different brackets. The first bracket is Overall Effect, the next is Ensemble Analysis and the last is Individual Performance. The first marching band competition was in Melrose on Saturday, Oct 7th, 2023, in which there was a standstill due to the rain.

The next competition was in North Andover on Saturday, Oct 16th, 2023, competing against Melrose and Salem Witches. They scored 3rd in Overall Effect Music with 162.00 and 3rd in Overall Effect Visual with 157.00, 1st in Music Analysis – Ensemble with 163.00 and 3rd in Visual Analysis – Ensemble with 154.00. They were 2nd in Music Performance – Individual with 80.60 and 1st in Visual Performance – Individual with 79.60.

Their 3rd competition was at Wakefield and was a standstill performance due to the rain. Their 4th competition was in Reading on Saturday, Oct 28th, 2023, competing against Oliver Ames, Melrose, Everett HS, and North Reading. They scored 2nd in Overall Effect Music with 181.00 and 5th in Overall Effect Visual with 166.00, 3rd in Music Analysis – Ensemble with 180.00 and 3rd in Visual Analysis – Ensemble with 174.00. They were 5th in Music Performance – Individual with 85.300 and 5th in Visual Performance – Individual with 84.90.

They had finals in Lawrence Sunday, Nov, 5th 2023.