Mucca Pazza – the High School Reunion You’ll Want To Go To

Lincoln Hall, the revamped and awesome evolution of the old 3 Penny theater, provides ideal settings to watch Mucca Pazza, the Chicago-based marching band-cum-punk group. In the balcony, you can easily see all of the 30 members as they march around the stage, up on risers, speakers and whatever else is handy. For the encore, the band even got most everyone up there to join. Fun for all.

But the real party is on the main floor. With no band in sight, a soft “oompah” sound could be heard as they congregated just off-stage. When the door flew open, a massive, and clearly well used, tuba was the first instrument to enter the maelstrom of shoulder to shoulder fans. A seemingly endless line of mismatched uniforms and brass instruments was soon snaking through the crowd, playing a generic football game sounding march. As the anticipation rose from the floor all the way up to us in the rafters, the audience’s energy was palpable. With everyone accounted for, fully immersed on the floor, the dance party exploded, and didn’t stop until after midnight.

No one ever looked quite this happy at my pep rallies.

High school band geeks turned rockstars, Mucca Pazza is the ultimate revenge of the nerds – rocking the capacity crowd for nearly two hours of marching band punk. After finally making it off the dance floor, the band filled every spare inch on the good sized stage. In between the raucous tunes, three cheerleaders (soon to be four if I can pull off my shameless self-promotion) entertained with sarcastic and grown up cheers far more advanced than my own “hey you cuties!” memories. (Seriously, I’ll bring my own pom-poms, Mucca.)

To all those science geeks who could never get a cheerleader in high school.

Perhaps their cumulative years spent in rigid suburban high schools inspired them to bust through their stiff marching band formation, but Mucca Pazza is definitely making up for lost time standing up straight and walking in dull lines. Soloists are easy to find as everyone else sits, lays or leans out of the way and the pelvic thrusting alone would be enough to embarrass any respectable PTA. Their truly fearless leader interrupted rarely, most memorably to shout out to “the first punk rocker: Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.”

Dmitri probably didn’t have this in mind…

Needless to say, it’s a unique concert experience. And as their tour continues through the summer, you just might get the chance to check it out yourself.

*By Jesy, who is a bit disturbed (but not ashamed) by her interest in being a cheerleader for Mucca Pazza.

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