Last night (28th of August) the Air Force Band put on a free concert at the Wyndham Cultural Centre.

As it was free, local and was bound to be amazing, we decided to cancel rehearsal and head down to watch.

And what a good decision that ended up being.

The event was completely booked out, and it is understandable why.

The RAAF band played some WCB favourites, such as Colonel Bogey, Death or Glory and what is personally my favourite piece by Holst, Second Suite in F.

The concert included some amazing solo works like Rimsky-Korsakov’s trombone concerto, and vocal works including The Prayer and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables (which I had coincidentally seen the night before).

One of my favourite parts of the night was the first piece after interval. It included three piccolos, three marching snares and a marching bass drum. As a flautist and piccoloist I was very, very into it.

I do have to mention that the man playing the marching bass drum dropped a mallet into the audience, and it was very funny when a woman from the front row tried to give it back to him and he obviously couldn’t take it from her.

However, what was awesome and completely unexpected was the little shout out the RAAF band gave us early on in the night. Fortunately our trumpet player, Elliott, wasn’t there to be embarrassed.

Overall it was a great night, and it was definitely worth missing rehearsal for.

If you don’t already, you can follow the Air Force Band on Facebook.