Skyview High School's "March" Madness-- In October | Arts & Culture

If you live in the Salmon Creek or Felida neighborhoods of Clark County, you've heard the Skyview band-- whether you want to or not. 

    It starts in late summer.  First the drums.  Then the horns.  You trust that the woodwinds are there somewhere too, they just don't resonate two miles.

    Seriously,  I live about two miles away from the Vancouver high school, as the crow flies, and I can hear the band prepping for the "marching band season" from my home.

    Band director Steve Robertson says these kids go 9:00am  to 9:00pm, Monday through Saturday the last two weeks of August.  (One time, at Band Camp....  We worked our "brass" off.  Get it?)

    Once school starts the band "plays for the neighborhood" a couple afternoons a week, and on Saturdays.

    The payoff comes Friday nights, at halftime of the football game.

     Believe me,  few folks get up and leave at halftime when the Storm band takes the field-  120 strong  Robertson says the 40-person color guard directed by Pattie Allinger, is the largest in the Northwest.  Drum majors Eric Price and Preston Grover lead the show.  Their traditional marching band uniforms crescendo with snow white helmets and plumage.  It's a show!

    Their performance this fall is titled "Vertigo."  During three songs they use props, decorations, and their marching formations to "blur" the traditional lines of a football field.

    And that's not all that's dizzying.

    Here's the Saturday schedule after Friday night's game.

    --7:00am: Practice.  Robertson says:  "We take game film as serious as the football teams does.  We evaluate and change things."

    --8:00am:  On the bus(es).

    --1:00pm  University of Oregon Festival of Bands in Eugene, prelims and finals.

    --1:00am  Return to school.

     And the storm band has five weekend shows and festivals this fall-- five in six weeks.  

     "We take Halloween off,"  Robertson says.

UPDATE: 10/12/09:  U of O Festival of Bands Results, Pattie Allinger tells me the Reign Color Guard placed 1st,  Drumline 1st, Overall Band finished 2nd.