The Bearkat Marching Band had their first performance Saturday at the football game against Midwestern. The band, also known as BMB, includes 120 members and is directed by Robert Meaux. Meaux, director of the marching band for the past five years, said, “we are primarily a marching band.”The Bearkat Marching Band only performs at the football games. Another band is ensembled for the spring basketball season.Rehearsals begin one week before school starts. “It’s not much time,” said Meaux. In college, there are no band competitions. However, SHSU hosts a high school band competition in the fall. Meaux said the SHSU Marching Festival will be held Oct. 25 at Bowers stadium. “About 30 high school bands compete, and we do an exhibition performance,” says Meaux.The marching band performs about 60 charts during a regular game. The band also performs a show during half time. “We have about three to four different shows during the season,” said Meaux.The band performed its rendition of “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce at the football game this past Saturday. The song will only be performed at the next two games. Each show is assigned certain games, the first show, which includes the Beyonce song, will only be peformed at the Baylor game on Saturday, Sept. 20 and the next home game on Oct. 9th at Bowers Stadium.Steven Bond, one of the Student Assistants for the Bearkat Marching Band, said Monday that the band will not be performing any other type of R&B songs, however “all we are playing on the field, is good.”The student assistants help with paper work, organizing rehearsals and teaching classes. Bond, a senior and four year member of the Bearkat Marching Band, teaches a marching fundamentals class. Bond said, “we help plan what music we are going to perform.” Bond, no longer an actual band member since he currently holds a student assistant position, says his favorite song to perform is a jazz piece entitled, “Malaguena.”Another student involved with the Bearkat Marching Band is Chris Gonzales. Gonzales, the Drum Major for the marching band, says, “the marching band is not only music majors, anybody can join.” Non-music majors comprise 35% of the marching band according to the BMB web page. Gonzales, who shares the Drum Major title with his twin brother Nick Gonzales and Kyle Baragas, says the band is “mainly corps-style marching and we play a lot of jazz to pop music.”Gonzales says, “(we) do what we can, play what we play and it’s just a lot of fun.”The Bearkat Marching Band performs at every home game. Meaux said that due to a budget increase, the band will be able to perform at two away games this year instead of one in the past. “We hope to increase that number each year,” said Meaux. The Bearkat Marching band will perform this Saturday at the Baylor game in Waco.
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