Remember the 2008 opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, where at first, you were like, “Damn, this is quite an elaborate spectacle,” but then you thought about how many hours of grueling rehearsal were required to yield that level of incredible precision, and you kinda got a sinking, unsettling feeling in your stomach?
Last night, the Ohio State marching band, widely known as the Best Damn Band in the Land, gave the Fou drummers from the Beijing Olympics a run for their money with an epic, incredibly well-choreographed ode to the music of Hollywood blockbusters.
The halftime show during OSU’s game against Penn State featured performances of the themes from Jurassic Park, Superman, and Harry Potter. The choreography included recreations of, among other things, a pirate ship battle, Superman flying into a building, and Harry Potter flying on his broomstick.
Yet the piece de resistance was when the band formed an image of a lumbering T. rex eating Devin Gardner, the starting quarterback for the University of Michigan’s football team. The dinosaur then spat Gardner out, to raucous cheers from the crowd.
The OSU and Michigan rivalry is a running joke for both schools’ marching bands, who frequently troll each other during halftime shows. Last August, the Michigan Wolverines kicked off the season with a halftime show that parodied OSU mascot Brutus Buckeye. They also skewered OSU’s trademark “Ohio” formation by forming the words “Oh no.”
The Buckeyes finally face off against the Wolverines Nov. 30. Perhaps a West Side Story-esque halftime rumble, featuring an elaborately choreographed knifing scene, is in the works?