Weekend of Insanity or How I Joined the Duke Pep Band

This article has nothing to do with politics or movies, but it was a experience crazy enough to share. I'm writing this from a bus on the way back from East Lansing.

Last Tuesday, I woke up to a text from Xin Xu saying that he would be coming to East Lansing for a NCAA women's basketball tournament game. In the text, he mentioned that I probably won't be able to visit him but I should try anyways. I thought to myself, there's no way I won't meet up with my main man if he's only going to be 100 miles away.



But it was a bad weekend - I had promised to participate on two movie shoots that weekend, including one in downtown Detroit on Saturday. The first shoot was on Friday in an Ann Arbor art gallery. There, I worked with Patrick Sperry, the director of "Stuntman." Watch my words, Patrick Sperry will be an A-list director in a few short years. Anyways, The Friday night shoot was awesome but tiring. I met a lot of cool people and got a good idea of how movies are filmed.

The next morning, I was to go to downtown Detroit for a separate movie shoot, entitled "Rockwell." But I was never picked up. Originally, I was going to take a bus from Detroit after the shoot to East Lansing, but I ended up going straight from Ann Arbor to East Lansing.

I reached East Lansing around 2:30 pm on Saturday. Xin in a hotel in Lansing proper, right next to the state capitol. The poor guy walked the 3 miles from Lansing to East Lansing to meet me in a Barnes and Noble. Then, we ate in a restaurant called "India Palace." Those that went with me to the MSU quiz bowl tournament will remember this place.

After that, Xin and I went to Pinball Pete's and shot dinosaurs in a Lost World arcade game. When that got too tricky we switched to House of the Dead 3, where we destroyed zombies for a while. The original plan was for me to hang with Xin Saturday evening and return to Ann Arbor on a bus leaving at 3am. We called up John McRae, our friend from Houghton, and were going to meet with him. But I had a backpack with me, and I didn't want to bring it to meet John. So, Xin and I took a bus back to Lansing to drop off the backpack at his hotel.

At the hotel, I met with Xin's friend Jackie from Duke. While I was somewhere else, Xin mentioned to Jackie that I played the drum set. Jackie told Xin that the Duke pep band's set drummer had bailed from the trip at the last minute and they needed someone to replace him. Jokingly, we thought that I could take his place and play set at the Duke women's b-ball game. Caught up in this ridiculous idea, we decided to go ahead and ask the band director if I could play with them.

The director, a really cool guy named Jeff, was delighted. He was pretty happy and shocked to have this absurd coincidence fall into his lap. By that time, Xin and I realized that this was actually happening. I would have to really play with the Duke pep band the next day at 2:30. It was beyond our control at that point. I felt a mixture of panic and humor. As Jackie put it, all this was pretty hysterical. I was freaking out because A) I hadn't played drum set in a band since May 2008 and B) I didn't know any of the Duke arrangements. I was familiar with a few of the songs, such as "Seven Nation Army" and "Somebody Told Me," but I didn't know the drum fills/solos. Xin and Jeff assured me that everything would be ok. Plus, there was Chris, the other percussionist who wasn't entirely comfortable with the set but knew how to play the songs properly.

Xin and I watched Michigan lose to Oklahoma as I cranked out a review of "Duplicity" that was due for the paper at 3pm on Sunday and later as Duke beat Texas. We ventured out in Lansing to find a dining establishment, but every eatery was a bar that required patrons to be at least 21. So we ended up taking a fancy trolley called the "Entertainment Express" to the MSU campus, where we found a decent Chinese place called Rice Kitchen. We took the Entertainment Express back to the Radisson hotel. On the way back, we saw this amazing taxi called the "Shaggin Wagon," which I would take to the bus station the next day.

Sunday morning, Xin and I woke up and got some coffee and bagels and such. I was pretty nervous, since I still had no idea what to do at the game. I put the finishing touches on "Duplicity" right before the bus left. And I found out I was getting paid some money in "per diem" for helping with the band that day. I was pretty happy, since I was willing to play with them for free. The whole time, I was thinking what a great story I would be able to tell people one day.

I left with the band at 1pm. It was a relatively small band, since the other part of the band was playing at the men's tournament in Boston. During the short bus ride, I talked with Chris about the crucial upcoming solos and fills. Some stayed in my mind, and some didn't. But what do expect? I haven't read music in almost a year now. We arrived at the Breslin Center and unloaded the bus. Chris had a large box of percussion stuff, so he couldn't go with the rest of the band to their designated area. I decided to stick with him and pick up a few more pointers while we waited for the MSU-Middle Tennessee State game to end. During this time, we watched the Duke women's team warm up. It was pretty surreal.

We went into the stadium late, since our chaperone forgot about Chris and I. We had to rapidly set up the drum set and bass drum. Our rivals at Austin-Peay State University had already finished and started playing. Once completed, the band played the Duke fight song, which I wasn't familiar with, along with this rad tune called "Vehicle" and a few more. As the team entered the stadium, we played "I Can't Turn You Loose," better known as the Blues Brothers theme. Chris and I switched back and forth between the drum set and the bass drum. He played the songs with important fills and such on the set and I played everything else. These included "Somebody Told Me," "Cheeseburger in Paradise," and most excellently the Mortal Kombat theme.

The game brought me back to the days of high school pep band, multiplied by 1000. I shouted and hollered for a team I had no allegiance with, but now I love Duke as much as Michigan. I got to participate in many of the band's hilarious chants. We would all count down the final seconds of the shot clock even though there was more than enough time left. This actually worked on one occasion, as a player took a shot with 4 real seconds left, but the band had already counted down to 0. The band picked out the worst player on the opposing bench and would scream whenever they touched the ball. This may seem despicable, it was ingenious at the time. And I know for a fact that I was on ESPN for a few seconds, when a Duke player was injured.

The game ended, and all was well. It was the most fun I had in a long time, especially considering the randomness of the situation. Back at the hotel, I traded the per diem with Jeff in exchange for the blue and white striped Rugby, which is now a sweet souvenir. I got to hang out with the Duke mascot, the Blue Devil (whose name I cannot disclose) for while. The whole band went out to eat at a restaurant called Clara's, which was yet another memorable experience. The night ended and I sadly had to leave my new friends from Duke. And Xin. I kind of wanted to stay and play with them during their game on Tuesday against Michigan State, but I have way too much work to do.

This all actually happened. It was crazy. I never thought anything of the sort would occur in my lifetime. I'm glad Xin talked me into taking the opportunity. He is a good man.