Cheered Up

Horn players and drummers of the old Turkish military bands were the forerunners of modern marching bands like the avant-garde What Cheer Brigade.

I haven’t had as much fun as I had at the What Cheer Brigade’s show since I don’t know when. This 18-piece marching band out of Providence, RI, is a horn-blaring, drum-booming riot, just like those formed during the 13th century, when trumpeters were joined by “kettledrums louder than the roar of a runaway Mack truck,” as described in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite‘s entry on Fanfare. In those days, European Crusaders did sonic battle with their opponents, who, in turn, unleashed a symphonic uproar made “as if with glittering thunderbolts,” according to one witness. Soon every European princeling had his own troupe, made up of as many musicians as possible, and the marching band was born.

If I were Queen Elizabeth or Maximilian the Great of Bavaria or Kind Ladislas V of Hungary, I’d hire the What Cheer Brigade as my imperial band and travel with them everywhere. Check out their glorious 21st century glitter-bolts here, http://www.whatcheerbrigade.com/music/

There is nothing as fun as the What Cheer Brigade!