March Fourth! to the Belly Up

Like no other marching band you’ve ever seen: March Fourth! blends elements of the horn-band ’70s with gospel, funk, jazz, rock, and the circus into a marching band that does not actually march. This begs the question that if indeed MF! does not march, how can they be thusly classified? The answer lies in the cadence. I’m talking about the one-two-three-four beat that boxes in every one of their songs. That’s a walking tempo that has been drummed into our collective genetic matter during halftime shows over the past century. In true marching-band style, the horns carry the melody, but in a way that I could honestly see supporting a band like Mötley Crüe in a place like Las Vegas. March Fourth! likewise has electric guitars and little hints of sin. The band members have deconstructed their traditional band uniforms into a coy Black Rock Desert kind of look. I’d be surprised if this band had not played Burning Man, which they have, along with opening stints for arena acts such as Fleetwood Mac and No Doubt.

John Averill of Portland is the engineer of March Fourth! He says he prepared what he thought was going to be a one-off band for a Fat Tuesday parade on March 4, 2003. The band was a hit in that rarified Portland climate, a place where music goes to get bent (consider fEARnoMUSIC and Third Angle, a couple of other Portland genre-expanding groups). March Fourth! got named Best Local Band in a 2004 Portland readers poll and they haven’t looked back. They’ve been touring nationally since 2007, internationally for the past few years, and among the hundred-or-so dates they do annually, March Fourth! gigs at some of the nation’s more rustic festivals, blasting and stomping out what Averill claims to be 95 percent original stuff. March Fourth! is your pep squad way to a better day.