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I still think it would have been funny (though the crowd wouldn't have gotten it) had we annouced: "All complaints about the MOB's performance can be emailed to yourmom@rice.edu"

Now, for my comments on the crowd. They were gracious enough to cheer after the TIL intro to pregame. I could barely contain myself when I saw a wave of ~95,000 people stand all at once to hear the "Michigan State Song." The reaction that followed sounded like a mix of boos, cheers, and laughs. The Michigan band got more of a reaction at pregame, not surprisingly, as the crowd was ready to get fired up about the game.

By halftime, Rice trailed 35-0, the game was in the bag, and the crowd was in a very friendly mood. With only scattered SA action in pregame, the Michigan State Riot that began our halftime show was something completely new to the audience. They loved the joke, and laughed incredibly hard at the action on the field. The Notre Dame joke went over well, as did the Ohio State burger joke. On that one, the crowd seemed to see the burgers and fries about the same time they heard the words "Ohio State grads", so they were laughing in anticipation of the punchline. For "C", I feel sorry for the people in the stands who were just at the right distance to wonder whether the 3 SA's on the field really were naked.

Clear indication the crowd was in our favor: when Jonathan said "Give me an E," they responded. So they definitely allowed us the dig at the end about having to be from Rice to understand the show. And whatever "confusing SA action" was taking place during Love Shack (I couldn't see) seemed to elicit a good response. Watching the video after postgame, some people even seemed to get the CTW joke during Louie. 

I can't remember a more thoroughly crowd-pleasing MOB performance. We were definitely something new to them (I don't think they had any visiting bands last year, much less scatter bands), which helped a great deal. I felt sorry for the Michigan band having to take the field after us. We won halftime. Both last night in Ann Arbor, and this morning at the Detroit airport, MOBsters received tons of praise for the show. 

Other notes: I thought the stadium was beautiful. There was no advertising, posted, or broadcast during the game. The stadium doesn't have lights. I remember a football player commenting last year that the UT crowd sounded louder than the UM crowd. I think this may have been true, probably because of the shape of the seating bowls. But only at UM can you watch 109,778 people do the wave.

MOB Michigan 2000

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