When Jonathan Waters took over the Ohio State marching band last fall on a permanent basis, the already world renown The Best Damn In The Land turned the knob up from roughly nine-and-a-half or ten to eleven. Frankly, nobody gets the culture/identify of TBDBITL better than Waters himself: he was a member of the band from 1995-1999, was a grad assistant in 2000 and 2001, and received not just one, but two master's degrees in music education/conducting from the school before ultimately being named an assistant director. And since Waters has put his own fingerprints all over the shows, things have gotten even more insanely awesome – and in a hurry.
First there was the video game homage, then letting the Plain Dealer put a camera on an alumni band member for some first person/voyeur TBDBITL vantage, then the appearance at Jack Nicklaus' President's Cup, and of course last week's Michael Jackson moonwalk homage. The awesome sauce doesn't seem certain to stop anytime soon, and last night just raised the bar that much higher.
Though there'll be no convincing some that Waters wasn't actually a senior editor at BuzzFeed before taking the baton, last night's show featured as follows: dueling pirate ships (one naturally with a Michigan flag), Harry Potter riding his broom, and of course, a huge tyrannosaurus rex eating a man in a Devin Gardner jersey. Real respect real, but not unlike the football team, the burden of high expectations may eventually start to rear its ugly head.
In the meantime, we'll celebrate what we have. Another Internet viral worthy, totally awesome tour de force of a halftime show. For those with Internet-itis/OCD (or just general purveyors of GIF art), here's your requisite Ohio State Marching Band GIFs of the week:
(Credit: For The Win)
(Credit: For The Win)