Revere Marching Band stood at attention as the cameras prepared for the morning’s show. Cameras turned on and Darren Lebeau, Director of the Bands, stood in front of the band with Kenny Crumpton, founder of the segment Kickin’ It With Kenny. Lebeau talked about this year’s show, and the technology and hard work that went into the show. Crumpton introduced the band and the percussion counted off. The Revere Marching played the song they play for every touchdown and in every parade, the Fight Song. As the band finished the song, Kenny transitioned the cameras from the band and back to the studio.

The Revere High School band met at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on September 2, 2016 and performed on Fox 8 News on a segment of Kickin’ It With Kenny.

Crumpton, a long-time journalist who started his career in 1990, recently did a segment on the Revere Marching Band. John Kerezy, who runs the Speech and Debate Team at Revere High School, had some connections with the news team and recommended the band to be on air last year. Due to scheduling conflicts, the Revere Marching Band could not perform; once they got invited again this year, they jumped on the chance. After getting approval from Revere Local School District superintendent Matthew Montgomery, the band drove off to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on buses.

“They sent [the directors] a list of the itinerary for the morning, and that we [the band] would need to know seven pep tunes that would be interspersed between their segments. Kenny was going to do an intro and the band would be playing behind it, so we [the band] had to provide seven one minute to a minute and a half segments that would be on camera,” Lebeau said.

The band prepared and performed multiple songs including Land of 1000, the Hey Song, Centuries, Uma Thurman, the Fight Song, and Don’t Stop Believing. All of these songs were prepared and perfected during the band’s one month practice session in the summer known as ‘Band Camp’ and also at the football games.

Senior Gina Ciolli, field commander along with John Wilson, explained that even though she and the rest of the band were well prepared, she was nervous. The song she conducted on television, Centuries by Fall Out Boy, was new last year, so the band has played it for two years now. Ciolli later shared that even though she feared the cameraman zooming in close, it never happened and she thought the performance went really well.

“We did conduct one song which was Centuries. It was kind of nerve wracking, even though it I knew it was just a basic pattern. It was also nerve-wracking because I expected the cameraman to get uncomfortably close,” Ciolli said.

Lebeau shared how the band had to be at the school at 5:00 am, and they had to have uniforms on, hair braided, and instruments loaded and ready to go by 5:45 am. After unloading and preparing for the show at 6:30 am, the band performed and went back to school for second period and then had a football game that night until 10:30 pm.

“It was great to do it. I do not know if I would want to do it every year because it is so early, but it was fun. And that is what we are trying to do this year, we are trying to do different things this year than what we had done in the past,” Lebeau said.

Visual coordinator Jacob Taylor has worked side-by-side with students since the end of summer in preparing for this year’s marching band season, and he has been very impressed with how accomplished they are thus far.

“These kids are the hardest working kids we have had in a long time. They are the most motivated and the show is way more produced for September 23 than it ever has been in the past. This is definitely a harder show than we have ever done, they march a whole lot more, and there is more body [choreography] and more individual responsibility than ever before, and they are meeting it with a great deal of achievement,” Taylor said.

The band has worked on the pep tunes, marching and choreography and show tune. After qualifying for the state competition at the home invitational, the band will continue working to improve their scores and place at that higher level. Both Taylor and Lebeau cannot wait to see the end results of the marching band season.

Photos courtesy of Gina Ciolli,used with permission