Sometimes you gotta get away from the formality of the BSO concerts and embrace the cheese of the Boston Pops. Normally this is reserved for the holidays. But I was fortunate enough to get on the roster for a three night series of Pops concerts called “City of Champions” — a star-studded celebration of Boston’s sports culture.
What do I mean by schlock? Our songs include the star spangled banner, O Fortuna, take me out to the ball game (which has verses?!), Heart from Damn Yankees, to be a football hero, we are the champions, an Olympic fanfare from John Williams… Andre Tippett of Patriots fame is narrating a piece. More guest stars have been promised. The whole thing is just way more fun than anyone should be allowed to have at Symphony Hall.
For instance, as i write this at rehearsal today, we sit behind the Drop kick Murphys as they warmed up. We were warned that the organist from Fenway Park would be “warming up the crowd” before the concert and at intermission on Thursday. We were also told not to be alarmed if we heard the T shirt cannon going off.
First concert is tonight. In typical pops form, we had one rehearsal which was the first time many of us saw the music, and the on stage rehearsal is now. Should be a blast!
Just Another Bass 
Will you be permitted to use your books? LOL
I may be there this evening. We’ll see how things go. I’m sure it’ll be fun for all concerned. It’s a good thing the Sox are playing this afternoon, so there’s no conflict.
Ha! We do get our books, if only because of the nature of these things. It would be pretty difficult to memorize everything when the morning of the concert we’re told things like “cut from measure 87 directly to 143” as they make adjustments to the program.
I got to the concert. It was a lot of fun, even if the Dropkick Murphys didn’t show up. (I guess they’re scheduled only for Thursday.)
“Maestro” Kraft seemed to be having a lot of fun, and the Beethovenesque moment at the end made it even better.