Just saw this video from the Pride of Arizona roll across my Facebook feed, and I’m already into it.

If you’re unfamiliar with the tune, it’s Radiohead’s 15 Step, off of their In Rainbows album.

For what it’s worth, this isn’t the first time that the Pride (tagline: “The World’s First Alternative Music Marching Band”) has based a show around Radiohead, doing so in 2006, and certainly not the first time they’ve done something you’d hear on alt-rock radio, with a Red Hot Chili Peppers show back in 1996.

Keep in mind, this is an early play-through, as they’re still subjecting their bodies to the rigors of UA band camp—considering the full days of running through 100 degree heat and 54% humidity, I’ll overlook any lack of crispness in that video.

It’s good stuff with great potential. As a former band geek and member of the PoA, I might head to a UA football game and leave after halftime this year.

Just like most of the student section. Sorry, Rich Rodriguez.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZSOAY61sBEI%26hl%3Den_US%26start%3D1696

This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2012.

6 replies on “UA’s Marching Band Does Radiohead—Again”

  1. Good Lord, our Pride of Arizona need to get a new repertoire. Same old boring songs, same old boring halftime routines.

  2. Bet they play that fucking led zeppelin shit again and again and again.
    Ever notice how much jack lee and russel pearce look alike?
    Both little men with napoleon complex.

  4. It’s also worth mentioning that the USC band regularly flips off opposing bands and threw cans of Coke at the PoA back at a game in 2006. Doesn’t matter how good they are if they’re jerks. Don’t mind the trolls, good job PoA

  5. Hello again. I’d just like to say that I’m not a troll. At all. I’m a native Tucsonan, and I fully support the Pride of Arizona, and I wasn’t putting them down at all. I’m also just a huge Radiohead fan, and I thought that the article was omitting a major point.

    One of the cool things about this song is that it is in 10/4, which is a very unusual time signature. That’s why this U of A video starts with everybody counting to ten. Very fun, if you’re a time signature nerd. Like me.

    That the USC marching band got the opportunity to perform at the Grammys had nothing, I’m sure, to do with merit. Radiohead chose them because they are in L.A., low carbon footprint and all that. I just wanted to provide readers with a link to a badass performance of this song. That performance occurred in 2010, meaning that the 2006 band that Janoe made reference to contained none of the same kids. And it’s a shame if they behaved that way.

    Good luck PoA. It’s really pitchy, though.

  6. @ the guy who said POA has the same old boring halftime routines:
    Ummm…..they’ve had a different halftime show every single year and do multiple ones EACH season, all new every season and never repeated.

    Maybe if you went to a game you would know that.

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