A topic that arose the other day was do you think this is the time to stay true to what your band does....or given the fact this isn't your home turf or crowd (not to mention taking your demographic into consideration) do you tone down certain parts of your style so to speak as not to play into stereotypes?
I mean any HBCU band worth their spats is pretty much gonna get house for the simple fact many find our style of marching and showmanship more entertaining than corp/show style. So is there a need to go all out?
However the argument can also be made it doesnt matter where you play and who is there, stay true to you and do what YOU do.
Ive seen bands do both.
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when TSU plays U of H we do what they normally do. yet we equally respect each others styles when performing together as they have in the past.
Why show up to a game if you're not allowed do what you normally do
Now if you're a well known hbcu with a high degree of all around pedigree, I say go for the juggular. I loved our staff's attitude when it came to playing a PWC, and that was to completely dismantle them musically , take their house, and drill them into the ground. The plan was to let them know we could outplay them, out march them, and showout in their stadium i.e. ULL 09, Uof H 08, USC 06-09, Duke 06. After each one of these performances the other band either told us how good they thought we were, told us we were better than them, or looked completly disgusted.
I think far too often Hbcu's sell themselves short when playing these big Pwc's. Now if staying true to yourself means humping the ground, dancing for half of the drill and playing bubble gum tunes the whole game then youre probably going to feed the stereotype rather than shatter the negative perception, and that's why I say walking the line is going to vary from band to band, some may need to just hold back the volume a smidge, and others may need to overhaul everything.
I guess my mindset boils down to this, whether it was a hbcu or pwc we always went for the kill, maybe you hunt each type of prey differently....but you're pushing for the same result.
HBCU bands should be versatile enough to give the crowd the best of both worlds. Of course we all know that we can entertain, but there should be those songs in the book that display playing ability and musicianship also!
In the case of the Human Jukebx.....SU will be SU!