BY MICHELLE KEY | PUBLISHER
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVER
More than 450 bands from high school and collegiate levels entered the Metallica Marching Band Competition “For Whom the Band Tolls” and the Auburn University Marching Band’s (AUMB) was named the victor in its division. It’s entry was nearly nine minutes of LED light formations set to Metallica songs performed by 330 AUMB members.
Dr. Corey Spurlin said that he first learned of the competition when Metallica sent out an interest email in Spring 2023. Spurlin then sat down with the band’s student leaders to gauge the interest in undertaking a project that would require extensive planning and effort.
“We met with our student leaders to talk to them about the potential involvement in that because if you’re going to take on something of that scale – and we knew if we were going to be involved we were going to try to do something innovative as much as we could – we wanted to make sure that our students were completely invested in that venture,” Spurlin said. “Our student leaders were really, really excited about that opportunity and they said, ‘If there is a competition like that for college bands, we want to have our opportunity to be a participant in that.’ So that kind of got the ball rolling.”
Spurlin said that the band had already previously used the light technology that was used to create the Metallica show but not to the extent used this year. He discussed details about the first LED light show.
“I had judged a band competition [in 2017] and saw a high school band use LED light effects on a really small level out in Texas and … it kind of interested me,” Spurlin said. “It had a lot of potential for a much grander scale.”
After seeing the high school band show, Spurlin said that he knew that he wanted to bring this Auburn. He contacted the university’s engineering department and explained what he wanted to do. They agreed to help figure out how to individually program each student’s hat, the drums and so on.
AUMB percussionist Ben Brisendine offered to take the lead on the project in 2017. He created a prototype and then a master list of equipment and supplies that would be needed to be able to program LED lights for every member of the band on the field. Once tallied up, Spurlin said that the total needed exceeded the band’s budget for supplies and equipment, so he reached out to the athletic department for its help.
“They were very supportive,” he said. “They told us that there was the potential down the road to change the lights in the stadium so that they could be turned out, and if we had something that the band could do with lighting effects, it would work really well once that was done in the stadium. So, it was like investing in potential for the future. They helped us out by buying a lot of the equipment.
“We were going out on a limb, trying to be innovative, to do something that had not been done [here and on that scale] and hoped it would work. We really appreciated their believing in us.”
AUMB’s first show using the new effects was a tribute to the people of Las Vegas following the shooting that had occurred on Oct. 1, 2017. The band performed the show at half-time during the Iron Bowl, the SEC Championship game and later, The Peach Bowl in January 2018.
Spurlin said that the fan’s response to the new light effects was positive.
Although great, the new tech did not come without some hiccups as the band realized that the lights needed a lot of upkeep and near-constant repairs. A lights crew was created to maintain and repair the lights as needed. Spurlin said that they spent a lot of hours doing that type of work so they knew that this would not be something that they would want to do every show or even every year.
Two years later, Brisendine, now a graduate student, undertook revamping the program as his graduate project. He worked to make the equipment more dependable and require less maintenance.
The next show the AUMB performed using the lights was a patriotic-themed one in 2019, complete with a Statue of Liberty that lit up. However, one of the hardest things to plan was when to perform the show, because the band does not know more than just a couple of weeks ahead of time when it will have a night game and it takes three to four months of planning for a light show.
In 2019, they did not get a night game, so they decided to use a drone and filmed the show on the field in the dark and then posted the video online.
“That video went viral, and we got a ton of press off of that show,” Spurlin said. “Over the past two years, we tweaked them [the LED lights] some more, not knowing when we were going to use them, and then with the Metallica opportunity, we decided we were going to enter the contest.”
Spurlin said that once he knew that the band was on board tackling the Metallica project, he knew that it needed to be something big. What could they do that they hadn’t done before?
He sat down with the music arranger and went over which songs to include in the show. He said he then got with Assistant Athletic Band Director Nikki Gross and together they started charting the formations and working out elements to include that would highlight the band Metallica and its musical history.
With the title of the contest being “For Whom The Band Tolls,” Spurlin said that he knew that was where he wanted to start. He said he knew that Metallica had used a video board with bells swinging behind the band during one of its concerts in Brazil, so this became the inspiration for the band’s opening formation.
“That is how they started their concert so that is how we wanted to start our show; to recreate the concert that they did in Brazil,” Spurlin said. “We just tried to figure out how to make the bells look like they were swinging like church bells.”
Other elements in the show included spelling out Metallica, Sandman, and the iconic lightning bolts that Metallica is known for, the flame in between the lightning bolts and of course the guitar with its strings that were synchronized to the music the band was playing. But they also wanted to make it personal by including something native to Auburn.
“Nikki had the idea of doing the Tiger Eyes so that we could light up the eyes in the middle. That was a really neat effect.”
He said that one of his favorite elements was the guitar and that he told Gross what he had pictured in his mind.
“The picture she created and then Ben’s lighting effects with the strings just made it come to life like I had pictured. I gave them a challenge with that one and they really came through with figuring it out.”
All told, Spurlin said that they spent at least five months planning this show but that the band members started learning the music and formations in mid-September. There were approximately 330 band members and about 50 alternates who prepared for the show.
The opportunity for a nighttime show came when it was announced that the Ole Miss game on Oct. 21 would be played at night.
The band performed part of the show during half-time at the LSU game as a practice run in preparation for recording the show for the contest submission just a week later.
AUMB won first place in the D1 Collegiate level competition and will receive $75,000 in equipment and instruments. It also was voted as the fan favorite which comes with an added $10,000 prize.
Spurlin said that he appreciates the experience that the band had with this competition and that he is excited about winning.
“We obviously worked really hard on our show. It feels really good, not just to win but I thought it was great that Metallica trusted in marching bands to bring their music to life in a different way, in a different medium if you will.
“The most important thing is that our students had a great time; they enjoyed performing the show and they certainly enjoyed the great feedback we got from not only Auburn fans but from all over the country. It has been really good for them, and it has helped their experience in our band this year and I know it feels good to them to win any sort of contest. I think the process of it all, the experience of it all, was probably the greatest reward but it was nice to be chosen as the winner.”
He said that it would be impossible to thank everyone who supported them, but he wanted to tell everyone thank you.
“I appreciate everybody for supporting it, all those that voted, all the kind words expressed through social media, emails and all that. We want to express our appreciation for the folks that support our program, and our students. We could not do it without all that support, and we enjoyed doing it.
Spurlin said that he has no idea what that looks like yet but is looking forward to finding out more about the prize.
“We don’t have the parameters of how the prizes will be awarded yet,” he said. “It is wonderful that they [Metallica and the sponsors] put so much financial backing into it. It shows their commitment to the project.”
Sponsors of the competition included Metallica, TAMA, KHS America, Zildjian, D’Addario Woodwinds, Evans Drumheads, ProMark, and Gator, in partnership with Sweetwater, Conn Selmer and Hal Leonard.