Mira Costa Marching Band, Colorguard debut ‘Electropolis’

By Sierra Williams
Staff Writer

The Mira Costa Marching Band and Colorguard performed the opener, “City Of Lights,” of their full project called “Electropolis” on Sept. 7 during halftime at the varsity football game against Serra High School.

The band’s drill designer, Steven Estudillo, created the idea behind the show while performing with a band called The Machine Orchestra, which uses lights in its performances to animate the music. The Costa Marching Band imitated The Machine Orchestra by taping light-emitting diode lights to members’ costumes.

“Estudillo’s original idea was to use closet tap lights, but it didn’t work out with our costumes,” Costa band director Joel Carlson said. “So I found LED light strips from China for $7 each through Amazon, and band members put them on their costumes.”

According to Carlson, audiences have never seen this type of performance before from the Mira Costa band.

“It was the loudest high school applause I’ve ever heard,” Carlson said.

Senior Casey Choi, section leader and snare drum player, was the first player who had to turn on her lights. It was up to her to get the show off to a good start. She was also in charge of timing, which added a little more pressure to the situation.

“I kept telling myself ‘don’t miss the button Casey,’” Choi said. “And when the lights turned on, I heard the crowd say ‘whoa.’ I felt more comfortable once the performance was over.”

Junior flute player Kirsten Gustavson also shared some nervousness and believes “City of Lights” was a success.

“I heard the audience and felt their excitement once the crowd saw the lights,” Gustavson said. “I was really excited once we finished playing.”

The Mira Costa band has two more parts of “Electropolis” to perform later this year. The next part is entitled “Darkest Night,” and Carlson has not decided when the performance of the rest of the show will take place.

“The performance got a great reaction from the crowd,” sophomore band member Rebecca Bacich said. “With the extra time we have to work on it, I feel that we will be better than ever.”