Judge band: Have drums, will travel
There are bigger high-school marching bands and higher-precision high-school marching bands, but it's hard to find a marching band with more get-up-and-go than the Father Judge High School squad.
They go to football games and parades, of course. Last month, they led the Columbus Day parade downtown.
But they also play Chickie's & Pete's — as the pep band for Fox 29's televised post-season Eagles rallies...when the team gets that far. They won the gig by filling in at the 11th hour when a string band canceled on Pete. "I said, 'Let's get the phone chain happening,'" says band director Eric Apelt.
The Father Judge band plays firefighter functions all over town, most recently the dedication of a new Penny Ben sculpture in the park next to Engine 8 and Ladder 2 in Old City. They play at local ceremonies like the Christmas Tree lighting in Mayfair.
And famously, in a Northeast Thanksgiving Day ritual, they parade past the morning "kegs and eggs" crowd that tailgates on the front lawns of Rowland Avenue prior to the traditional Turkey Bowl game between Judge and Abraham Lincoln High School.
At the Daily News, we've come to think of the Father Judge band (fondly) as the Northeast's own mobile strike force: have drums, will travel.
And do they ever have drums! Of 37 band members, 13 are drummers. Seven others play saxophone. "We don't have too many flutes and clarinets," Apelt says. "When you get a band of high school boys, you get a lot of drums, guitar and bass." (In parades, the boys with the axes march with portable, battery-powered electric amps strapped on.)
Thanks to open auditions for girls throughout the Northeast, the Father Judge band also has a sizable dance team. Apelt's wife coaches, and the boys are in her debt. "I have two or three boys who are dating dancers," Apelt says.
Musically speaking, when life hands you drums, sax and bass, you make funk. So the Father Judge band has come to be known for standards like the Commodores' "Brick House." Their halftime show is a hard-rock medley of AC/DC hits.
The dance team gets its funk on modestly. To keep the routines wholesome, the Catholic school mandates that the girls leave room for the Holy Ghost between each other. Team mom Sharon Williams aptly describes their fresh-faced groove as being "bouncy."
In the past year, the Father Judge band and dance team also have come to be known for their crisp new uniforms — and especially for the boys' showy ostrich-plume helmets.
Audiences adore them, and members of the band-parents' association say that other bands have expressed envy.
"The kids don't like them," sighed band mom Nancy Montanaro at the recent Father Judge-North Catholic football game last Saturday.
She was sitting in the bleachers behind the band alongside fellow band mom Cyndi Strollo, who added, "They're high school boys." *
— Becky Batcha
They go to football games and parades, of course. Last month, they led the Columbus Day parade downtown.
But they also play Chickie's & Pete's — as the pep band for Fox 29's televised post-season Eagles rallies...when the team gets that far. They won the gig by filling in at the 11th hour when a string band canceled on Pete. "I said, 'Let's get the phone chain happening,'" says band director Eric Apelt.
The Father Judge band plays firefighter functions all over town, most recently the dedication of a new Penny Ben sculpture in the park next to Engine 8 and Ladder 2 in Old City. They play at local ceremonies like the Christmas Tree lighting in Mayfair.
And famously, in a Northeast Thanksgiving Day ritual, they parade past the morning "kegs and eggs" crowd that tailgates on the front lawns of Rowland Avenue prior to the traditional Turkey Bowl game between Judge and Abraham Lincoln High School.
At the Daily News, we've come to think of the Father Judge band (fondly) as the Northeast's own mobile strike force: have drums, will travel.
And do they ever have drums! Of 37 band members, 13 are drummers. Seven others play saxophone. "We don't have too many flutes and clarinets," Apelt says. "When you get a band of high school boys, you get a lot of drums, guitar and bass." (In parades, the boys with the axes march with portable, battery-powered electric amps strapped on.)
Thanks to open auditions for girls throughout the Northeast, the Father Judge band also has a sizable dance team. Apelt's wife coaches, and the boys are in her debt. "I have two or three boys who are dating dancers," Apelt says.
Musically speaking, when life hands you drums, sax and bass, you make funk. So the Father Judge band has come to be known for standards like the Commodores' "Brick House." Their halftime show is a hard-rock medley of AC/DC hits.
The dance team gets its funk on modestly. To keep the routines wholesome, the Catholic school mandates that the girls leave room for the Holy Ghost between each other. Team mom Sharon Williams aptly describes their fresh-faced groove as being "bouncy."
In the past year, the Father Judge band and dance team also have come to be known for their crisp new uniforms — and especially for the boys' showy ostrich-plume helmets.
Audiences adore them, and members of the band-parents' association say that other bands have expressed envy.
"The kids don't like them," sighed band mom Nancy Montanaro at the recent Father Judge-North Catholic football game last Saturday.
She was sitting in the bleachers behind the band alongside fellow band mom Cyndi Strollo, who added, "They're high school boys." *
— Becky Batcha
