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Ryan Center In-Game Experience - Issues and Upgrades

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:42 pm
by Blue Man
So I'm sitting at the friars game right now, and I've always thought this, but their band is amazing
Like a pleasure to listen to.

Why is ours so terrible? Like beyond their song selection and how many times they do the same song.over and over and their totally thin musical catalog...their overall musicianship and talent is embarrassing to say the least.

Should also be on the "to do list" for next year.

. .

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:45 pm
by ATPTourFan
UMass also has a great band even if everything else about Mullins is displeasing.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:46 pm
by Andrew
Yep! Any reason why the drum line can't come out more often? They're always entertaining.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:53 pm
by ATPTourFan
Can we just make this a General Next Year Non-Player Needs thread?

I'm thinking a Public Address announcer is in order.

If you miss our former, very professional PA guy, Mike Mancuso, you can hear him do PA for tonight's game at Bryant University.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:51 pm
by STC
Amen to fixing the band, ours blows (no pun intended) and plays the same garbage every year.

Yes, also totally agree about PA guy! What a joke Yorke was this year, an utter disgrace. Call me URI!

Can we get some hot chicks as Ramettes and cheerleaders? NO MORE FAT CHICKS!

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:54 pm
by rambone 78
Hurley will get it done, top to bottom.

These things aren't high on the list of priorities I would think. But they'll get to them.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:57 pm
by rhodyfan3
Definitely need to improve the band. They can possibly get the students involved more with a good selection of songs etc. Also, agree with changing the PA guy. I remember just looking at the people next to me going "what is he thinking?".

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:03 pm
by twisted3829
at least get some new music, I feel like they've played the same music the last 10 years

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:07 pm
by ATPTourFan
Because they have... and not well.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:07 pm
by rhodyfan3
twisted3829 wrote:at least get some new music, I feel like they've played the same music the last 10 years
Jump around for both football and basketball. Multiple times per game.


Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:10 pm
by ATPTourFan
Of course, the Ryan Center audio guy plays that at certain times in the game. You'd like the band to play it or just pump it into the PA system from iTunes over and over?

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:12 pm
by rambone 78
Everyone has to remember, everything about the URI BB program has been small time for 10-12 years. That includes the band.

It will change, just might take a while.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:17 pm
by NY2Rhody
can we get rid of the big heads too? They aren't funny or clever or distracting.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:18 pm
by STC
NY2Rhody wrote:can we get rid of the big heads too? They aren't funny or clever or distracting.

agreed, big heads were cool initially but they are just played out at this point, not to mention they arent even big, more like medium sized.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:20 pm
by rodfromcranston
I don't care what anyone plays or pipes in, spare me that
(C)rap.
Take in mind the demographics of who's in the stands.
Big Heads are dumb, too.
I guess the cheesey giveaways are needed to keep people awake.
Plus all that screaming at timeouts.
Impossible to talk about the game with even whoever is sitting
next to you, with all the bombast.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:31 pm
by Billyboy78
I noticed the band looked awfully small at the games I went to. I counted 15 people. My daughter is in her high school band. They have over 150 people.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:35 pm
by rambone 78
Remember the days of That Ram Band?

One of the best bands in the country. Went to bowl games.

For a long time, they were the highlight of a day at Meade. More so than the team.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:37 pm
by eli#10
Here we go--next year's theme song has got to be Journey's "Don't Stop Believen". Quite appropriate! Someone pass this suggestion on to Danny and Thorr.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:07 pm
by Optimistic
rodfromcranston wrote:I don't care what anyone plays or pipes in, spare me that
(C)rap.
Take in mind the demographics of who's in the stands.
Big Heads are dumb, too.
I guess the cheesey giveaways are needed to keep people awake.
Plus all that screaming at timeouts.
Impossible to talk about the game with even whoever is sitting
next to you, with all the bombast.
The whole "(c)rap" joke is the most tired thing on the internet Rod, give that a break please. They're not trying to appeal to the old white people who show up no matter what. The music, and the atmosphere is (and should be) tailored to bring young people to the games. I would agree that the sound system is too loud.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:55 pm
by rodfromcranston
You call that shit "music"? Wow!
Young people only listen to (C)rap?
How do you account for Justin Timberlake,
Alisha Keys, Pink, Katie Perry and others?
I forgot, it's a crime to be an older white person in America.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 6:05 am
by SGreenwell
rodfromcranston wrote:You call that shit "music"? Wow!
Young people only listen to (C)rap?
How do you account for Justin Timberlake,
Alisha Keys, Pink, Katie Perry and others?
I forgot, it's a crime to be an older white person in America.
Your dad called and wants to know why you're listening to crap like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles. Now Bing Crosby, there's a guy you can really hum a tune to!

I'm jesting, but only a little. It's pretty much the job of every new generation to listen to music the previous generation thinks sucks. I imagine that even in 1810, kids were telling parents, "This Mozart guy sucks."

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 6:08 am
by SGreenwell
Re: the band, the cheerleaders and everything else, I imagine all of that improves as the quality of the program does. Unless something has changed from the time my old roommate played in the pep band, they got something like $500 and free tickets per season, which isn't exactly a big sway when normal students get free tickets anyway. I believe cheerleaders and Ramettes also get similarly small stipends, to the point where another friend who was All-State in cheerleading had absolutely no interest in doing it at URI because there wasn't much financial motive to it, and it was essentially like taking on a full-time job with all of the practice you need to do it safely.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:49 am
by Rhody72
URI allowed athletics to rot and the impact wasn't just the performance of teams that had a decade of incompetence in major sports. The impact hit the band, spirit organizations, and the sense of community toward the school internally and in the State. Administrators didn't appreciate the importance on Athletics in the health on the institution.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:24 am
by ramfan85
Bring back the "original" Ramettes and add music by William Hung (She Bangs).

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:39 am
by Rhodymob05
We need lighting for intros

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:43 am
by BFC
Now that I know it pisses off the old white people, I vote for more rap. And what's with those baggy shorts, can't even see the outline of anyone's testicles anymore?

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:52 am
by rodfromcranston
Like I said, it's now a crime to be an older white person in America.
Some of those baggy shorts are about as good a look as those morons with their
pants on the ground with their underwear showing.
Oh, and Greenwell, my mother loved the British Invasion era music.
Like I said, kids like Bruno Mars, Katy Perry et al,at least as much as that other garbage.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:10 am
by Rhodymob05
I would prefer higher shorts. I'm 22 by the way, putting the basketball between your legs is more difficult with baggy shorts, plus my tan lines looked great

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:13 am
by Rhody Guy
My buddy and I joked all year long about how Hurley will insist that we need to develop a pep band that is worthy of a championship caliber program.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:19 am
by Sweep The Leg
twisted3829 wrote:at least get some new music, I feel like they've played the same music the last 10 years
Actually 20. Same songs when I attended. Half-ass effort.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:31 am
by ramfan85
Agree about changing the music. How many times can you hear "Louie Louie"?

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:35 am
by neil
I also agree about the music. However, in defense of the band, the canned music is played over 50% of the time. When the team comes on the court, the band does not play the fight song, or for that matter any song, but "canned music" reigns. I'd like to hear more from the band. Just a suggestion.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:39 am
by rodfromcranston
I'd love to see the REAL Ramettes come back.
Probabaly the ACLU would step in, because those girls had a height requirement.
They were all pretty tall, so they could do those Rockettes numbers.
Plus the short dresses and knee high white boots would be protested
by NOW.
Nobody left their seats at halftime, until the Ramettes finished their routine.
As I said many times, John Chuckran banished them as "too slutty".
Sure beat people in black pants writhing around the floor.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:42 am
by section(105)
Blue Man, last nite at Dunk I was able to sit low right next to the band and thought the same thing. Our PA guy got better, meaning the less I noticed him the better he got......hopefully, the Team Hurley will look into and make chances going forward in all aspects of the atmosphere improvements in the RC......I know we have bigger fish to fry, but these stale things need to go.....actual tryouts for the PA announcer??....maybe they already do that....

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:46 am
by ramfan85
Chuckran definitely had issues.
Rod,
Remember when he laughed at me when I said that I'd get a ladder and set the correct time to the clock in the lobby at Keaney? He said it the union would have an issue with that.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:52 am
by rodfromcranston
The clock in the lobby never had the right time in 50 years!
What a joke.
Chuckran and Eddy Eddy did more harm to URI athletics than
Jerry D. OK, almost as much.
I think what we're seeing here is the stagnation of the Barren er Baron
years.
He didn't care about the glitz that goes with today's basketball
arenas and programs.
Now, you have to sell both the sizzle and the steak.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:52 pm
by EricRueb
I was a PC fan growing up - sorry - but attended URI games with my friend and his dad, a URI alum. I always loved the pep band; the Keaney Blue and white striped rugby shirts, constant performances. This was the mid 90s; when did it stop?

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 6:30 pm
by ElmCityRhody
Did someone say ramettes !?!?

ramettes = ECR smokeout !

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:38 pm
by ATPTourFan
ECR Sighting!!!

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:55 pm
by twisted3829
ElmCityRhody wrote:Did someone say ramettes !?!?

ramettes = ECR smokeout !
there is a reason I sat right behind them this year

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:12 pm
by RIFan
Just read the Cigar article about the elite 8 team to get a sense of how great the school spirit can be...and will be again!

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:22 pm
by Iggy1979
I emailed Thorr with some suggestions for the pep band and he said athletic dept didn't have any control over them. PC band is awesome. URI's looks like open mic night .

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:26 pm
by RIFan
Marching Band and Pep Band
With its versatile marching style, which blends traditional techniques and outstanding contemporary show design, the URI marching band is respected throughout New England for its musical achievement and entertaining performances. It plays at major athletic events and other functions during the fall semester. Students from all majors play in the wind, brass, and percussion sections, and perform in the flag line.
The URI basketball Pep Band provides musical enthusiasm at the URI Ram's games.

No audition is required for membership in either group.

Brian Cardany, Director of Athletic Bands
Brian is probably the person, or will know the person you can direct suggestions to.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:08 pm
by rhodyrudder
neil wrote:I also agree about the music. However, in defense of the band, the canned music is played over 50% of the time. When the team comes on the court, the band does not play the fight song, or for that matter any song, but "canned music" reigns. I'd like to hear more from the band. Just a suggestion.
+1

The first few years of the rc they didnt do any canned music.

Now they hardly let the band play, we hafta have the ball launcher tee-shirts and p.a. music!

I know they get some $ for a lot of the crap they do, but it's too loud & too dumb!

It isn't the p-bruins or the celtics. I wish they wouldn't feel like they had to pretend it was.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:25 pm
by Obadiah
Iggy1979 wrote:I emailed Thorr with some suggestions for the pep band and he said athletic dept didn't have any control over them. PC band is awesome. URI's looks like open mic night .
Iggy, that's a disappointing, pass the buck kind of response from Thorr. He should have a very big say on how that band performs, what they perform, and the clothing they wear. He also has control over the canned music.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:35 pm
by rambone 78
The people who run the pep band need to step it up, and have some pride in the band's performance. They must know they suck, they can change that. The athletic dept should be able to recommend that their performance improve also. If the school wants a first class operation all the way around, they need to have some control over getting it.

If they aren't going to put a good product out there, then they should just eliminate the band, and play canned music.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:16 pm
by Optimistic
rodfromcranston wrote:Like I said, it's now a crime to be an older white person in America.
Some of those baggy shorts are about as good a look as those morons with their
pants on the ground with their underwear showing.
Oh, and Greenwell, my mother loved the British Invasion era music.
Like I said, kids like Bruno Mars, Katy Perry et al,at least as much as that other garbage.
And the play that "crap" just as much as they play "(c)rap" at the Ryan Center. It's not a race thing Rod, I know you love preaching about the injustices the white man faces in this country, but it's simply an age thing. Just like with television, the 18-31 bracket is the most attractive and lucrative for potential advertisers. If a potential advertiser walks into a crowd of mostly older people, with soft rock playing on the PA, why would he want his company to advertise there? The marketing department is looking to create an exciting atmosphere that caters to the students and helps to bring about an imposing home-court advantage. To be honest, I think that most of the music they play at the Ryan Center is pretty bad, but I'm more than willing to put up with that. Walk into any arena in the entire country and they're all using the same playlists.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:37 pm
by SGreenwell
rambone 78 wrote:The people who run the pep band need to step it up, and have some pride in the band's performance. They must know they suck, they can change that. The athletic dept should be able to recommend that their performance improve also. If the school wants a first class operation all the way around, they need to have some control over getting it.

If they aren't going to put a good product out there, then they should just eliminate the band, and play canned music.
Probably needs to be some competition, like anything else. If you only get 20 kids coming out for pep band, then that's all you have to work with. If the team is good, then you probably get a lot more people coming out for pep band, and it probably allows you to do more with song selection and what not.

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:23 pm
by Iggy1979
The members of the pep band get 1 credit if they show up to a certain amount of games. Make them earn the credit!

Re: Next year needs: the band

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:33 pm
by NY2Rhody
something that always bothered me from this past season...when the "spirit squad" (rammettes and cheerleaders) joined forces to build that multi-tiered, rotating pyramid. it was probably their best routine. however at the same time they ran that, it was also time to "keep your eyes in the sky for the parachute drop."