On October 28, 2018, the Brentwood Green Machine Marching Band performed their final take on their 2018 show, The Unforgiven: A Ghost Town Legend, at the Syracuse Carrier Dome. For many, the performance welcomed feelings of relief after a long and grueling five-month season of marching, spinning, and playing. As a national class band, Green Machine developed their show from gravel and turned it into a masterpiece worth calling competitive. With baritone, trumpet, mellophone, and color guard solos, as well as woodwind and percussion features, the show was anything but lackluster. Being ordinary wasn’t in the agenda.

The band marched on — no pun intended — from a welcoming 4-week summer program to a sizzling week in Pennsylvania’s Camp Green Lane, and then to the frigid and windy conditions that Long Island is known for in the autumnal season. Though some negative attention was brought to the band for not placing as high as they usually do, the Green Machine spirit carried on in the Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular in Connecticut on November 18, and in the Islip Town Hall Ceremony on November 29.

With a team that has spent much of the last five months together, on the field and off, the results of the Championship performance felt like a punch in the stomach – it took everyone’s breath away. Many members felt that it was unexpected because they had left their hearts on the Syracuse field with a performance that engaged every inch of their body and mind. The students and staff alike were proud of the performance, regardless of the place the team received. In fact, the band director, Mr. Sitler, consistently reminded the members that “A number isn’t worth anything if you don’t perform.”

The Brentwood Green Machine performed a routine about a town plagued by evil and taken down into extinction. The three parts of the show were labeled Condemned, Lament, and Extinction. The music was arranged by Rich Guillen, who was was inspired by pieces such as “Summon the Worms” from Children of Dune; “Ecstacy of Gold” from The Good, The Bad, The Ugly; “La Fiesta Mexicana: Prelude I” and “Aztec Dance” by Herbert Owen Reed, and of course, “The Unforgiven” by Metallica.

As the season drew to a close, many of the members suffered from the aftershock when they went home the first day after Syracuse and didn’t have the urgency to practice their music or marching techniques. For a lot of the seniors, this was a bittersweet ending. For everyone else, the season left them motivated to work even harder next year.

With the increasing Green Machine recognition, Alejandra Villa Loarca, a Newsday reporter, made it her mission to record the band throughout the season in photographs and film snippets, as well as interviews. Her goal was to display the positive impact that the marching band had on the Brentwood community. She released an article titled, “‘Doing Right’ in Brentwood” and a compilation video of the band’s journey into Championships and the aftermath of it all, named “Green Machine Band ‘A Beacon of Light in Brentwood.’”