Bass trombone player Mark Fry sent me a link to this fun video of a brass player’s wedding. Like a nerd, the groom hired a brass quintet to play at his wedding, and the group started to get a little too excited while accompanying the ceremony. This video is pretty hilarious to musicians, and I’d love to know how obvious this sort of thing is to the general public.
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It’s pretty clear watching the congregation that they know that these guys are hamming it up.
I wonder if the groom didn’t hire his buddies from band class. The playing — even given the benefit of exuberance — how shall I say this? It lacks a certain knowledge of one’s own abilities and limits. I think that would explain the good-natured smiles: “Aw, those pals of Joe’s, they are really cracking me up. I wonder if it’s an open bar at the reception.”
Well, it might be helpful to know that the whole scene takes place somewhere in Austria. I studied there and that scene brings really back some funny memories. Anyway, not only has only has that country a most glorious musical heritage, but also a a very alive brass music scene. Now you might or might not like Alpine-style oompah-music, but the fact remains that there’s a whole lot of kids down there who reach double high c well before they can even spell their names correctly 😉 Put that together with an extremely outlandish sense of humour, well nourished by 600 years of Habsburg monarchy, then you what you get is Mnozil Brass, who really can’t simply be called “just another brass band”. They have several more funny clips on YouTube, and for those of you who know a bit of the German language, their web site (mnozilbrass.at) is quite a treat, too. Unfortunately, the “Austrian accent” does not translate into English all that well. Anyway, to anybody who might ever be offered a church gig in Austria (be it wedding, funeral or Easter mass), I strongly advise you to take on the job immediately. Chances are it’s going to be an entry in your personal book of unforgettable gigs (though not necessarily of the most tasteful kind, as shown so convincingly in the above video ;-).
This is happening in Austria? Interesting. I’ll have to hunt down more clips of them on YouTube.