WATCH: The UW Marching Band’s ‘Border War Battle’ Halftime Show
Keeping the Border War Boot in Laramie wasn't the only high point at War Memorial Stadium in on the University of Wyoming Campus in Laramie Friday night. The UW Western Thunder Marching Band put on an intricate, animated and exciting halftime show. Watch it below:
UW Band Director Joseph Carver said he been working to provide the audience with a variety of halftime shows this year. He added that he felt something has been missing from the lineup of shows, "a show that told a story."
So, for this year's Border War game the band designed a show that played on the rivalry theme. "We have a great relationship with our athletic marketing team and cheer squad so I thought that we could use our mascot Pistol Pete as the main character for the show," Carver said.
The storyline of the show started with introducing the two schools and then forming an animated ram that then fought Pistol Pete. The drama built as Pistol lost that battle. But he didn't give up.
As the band on the field played the song "Eye of the Tiger," the stadium watched Pistol Peat on the scoreboard as he hit the weight room and got ready for a rematch.
He returned to the field for the second battle with the ram. This time pulled out a lasso, conquered the ram, and emerged victorious. The band ended in their signature 'W' formation to play as Cowboy Joe to pumped up the crowd for the second half.
"I’m not sure we could’ve pulled this off on a stretch of the season where we had back-to-back home games," Carver said. "The students have worked really to raise the level of execution of the formations. It takes 100% of the members correctly marching their assignment or the quality of the picture suffers."
This year's football schedule help the band as they developed the show. " I’m not sure we could’ve pulled this off on a stretch of the season where we had back-to-back home games. It fell perfectly in the season schedule that we have had a couple of weeks to learn the formations and practice the show."
Carver said it was a full team effort from idea to performance. The band was aided by the auxiliary members, including color guard and feature twirlers, and "Our band staff of graduate assistants and auxiliary advisor really helped bring the idea to reality."
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