P-Jammers Represent!
April 5, 2010 
3 Comments
Spokane’s own “loudest and proudest” will be representing our city at the third annual Honk! Fest West in Seattle this weekend. Honk! Fest is a wild and bacchanalian conference of alternative marching bands that get together to watch each other perform, trade tricks and tips on how to be the best bands they can be, and to learn about the various issues that the bands support.
Spokane’s P-Jammers at the last MLK Jr. Day march.
The P-Jammers (or PJAMRS, standing for the Peace and Justice Activist Musical Rascals of Spokane) are a rag tag bunch of folks that love to get out and be the life of any social or economic justice party. They often accompany events organized by the Peace and Justice Action League, and can also be heard at a smattering of other relevant political gatherings.
In no small part due to our vigorous sports culture and our position as a hub to hundreds of small rural towns, marching bands are actually still a pretty big deal around Spokane. But they tend to be of a stiflingly traditional nature that emphasizes militaristic uniformity to the detriment of personal creativity and expression. Not so with the P-Jammers! This funky bunch fashions itself after the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, and members often make their own uniforms by hand out of reused materials.
While I might cringe a bit at some of the comments made by the crazier bards in this video, you’ve got to hand it to them for entertainment value. When people talk about a city being “vibrant,” for me this is the pinnacle of good old fashioned public fun.
Apparently these Honk! Fests aren’t unique to Seattle, they take place in a small number of cities all around the country. Not to wax nostalgic about Portland or anything, but in the brief time I lived there I encountered several Honk! style groups. There was the No War Drum Corps, a percussion booster band that often plays for the Rose City Rollers, and the unforgettably talented March Fourth, to name a few.
If we ever made a cultural asset map in Spokane and came up with indicators to measure our local creative health, I think the number and vitality of Honk! bands could be used as one of the canaries in our culture mine. They require a high degree of coordination dedication and guts, and thus would do well in reflecting our creative surplus. So cheers to the day when our people can go to Seattle to represent without the inevitable comment, “I didn’t know you had [insert cultural/social whatever it is] in Spokane!”
- Apologies for not mentioning the recent Musical Freedom Rally in Riverfront Park. Apparently it was a big success.
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Re: “a stiflingly traditional nature that emphasizes militaristic uniformity to the detriment of personal creativity and expression.”
While I whole-heartedly support what the PJAMRS and other alternative marching bands are doing (and am very excited that they have organized these Honk Fests), I whole-heartedly disagree with this statement I quoted. The marching bands are not a big deal around here because of the sports culture. If that were true, then there would be amazing marching bands coming out of Central Washington, which there aren’t. The marching bands are a big deal because they are *very very good* at what they do. Spokane has one of the best music programs in the state due to the leadership of music teachers such as Dave Weathered, who serves on the Washington Music Educators board and is nominated for the National board. Check out the marching bands at Mead, Ferris and Central Valley at their next competition. Not only are they insanely good musicians, but they put on amazingly creative shows that are on par with the best Drum Corps International groups. In fact, our local Drum & Bugle Corps, Spokane Thunder, which is made up of the most talented music students from all over the area, placed at Nationals in the last few years. These kids are playing on a professional level, and they are expressing their personal creativity by participating in an art form that is hundreds of years old. Knocking them for participating in corps style marching band (and being very good at it) is like knocking a world class ballerina for performing in Swan Lake instead of a street dance group! We should be applauding our local marching bands for what they are doing, and not comparing them to something that is *completely different*. Just my opinion.