The 2008 USC-Notre Dame game at the LA Coliseum was not a great one for the Fighting Irish. They lost 38-3, en route to a 6-6 record for the season. Notre Dame had 4 first downs and 91 total yards on offense (!!!).
But the game turned out to be a fateful one for the Band of the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame's 167 year-old marching band. Playing a triumphant show at USC for the first time ever, the band did a medley that included the OK Go song "Here it Goes Again," which became famous when the very fun low-budget video of the OK Go members performing on treadmills went viral. The marching band's performance that day included the band making two gigantic treadmills on the field, and band members reenacting some of the video's moves.
OK Go saw the performance by the marching band - whether live or later is not clear - and had an idea. They contacted Notre Dame's Assistant Band Director in the spring (that link tells the whole story) and floated the idea of doing a video with the band. So over Notre Dame's fall break 2009, the bands spent the week rehearsing, recording, and shooting the video for a special marching band version of OK Go's song This Too Shall Pass. The video - watch it here - was shot in one take, on the Notre Dame campus. It was released by OK Go in early January, 2010, and has been a huge hit. It currently has 8.7 million views on YouTube.
OK Go has since returned to Notre Dame to play shows on various tours. During the Pitt game in 2010, the band came back and joined the marching band on the field in a brilliantly-executed live performance of This Too Shall Pass at halftime.
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BONUS FACT: OK Go did an even more ambitious video for the non-marching band version of This Too Shall Pass, which is brilliant and which has nearly 41 million views.
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