Origin Story.
Every great band has an origin story. Ours involves YouTube, a lot of beer, and a global pandemic that somehow made us better.
It started innocently enough: a group of friends stumbled upon videos of Mnozil Brass online and collectively lost our minds. Here were classically trained brass players doing things we didn’t know were possible—technically brilliant, hilariously entertaining, and absolutely fearless. We looked at each other and said, “We should try that.”
So we did what any reasonable musicians would do: we bought a few Mnozil charts, found a rehearsal space, and started playing. Every few weeks we’d gather, attempt to master lightning-fast polkas and intricate arrangements, and slowly realized we might actually be onto something.
But here’s where the story gets good.
Just down the road from our rehearsal space sat the Tally Ho Pub—an Irish pub that served German taps, clearly showing an understanding of the universal truth that both countries make exceptional beer.
After rehearsals, we’d pile into the pub, order a round (or three), and decompress. The running joke among us was that “rehearsal” was really just an elaborate excuse to our wives and partners to grab beers with the band every few weeks.
The pub became as much a part of our identity as the music itself. It’s where we celebrated our first real gig, where we planned our setlists over pretzels and pints, and where we realized this thing we started for fun was turning into something we genuinely loved. So when it came time to name the band, there was only one choice that made sense: Tally Ho! Brass.
Then COVID hit, and like every other band on the planet, we went silent. No gigs. No rehearsals. No excuses to grab beers with the boys. It was rough.
But after a while, we all started to miss it—the music, the camaraderie, the challenge of nailing that one impossible passage we’d been working on for weeks. So Alex, one of our trombone players, made an offer we couldn’t refuse: his family’s very large, heated garage. What we lovingly called “the woodshed” became our new home base.
We doubled down. More charts. More rehearsals. More polkas – we even started arranging our own tunes!
Spring 2021 rolled around, and our friends at Kegel’s Inn were trying to bring life back to their outdoor patio. They invited us to provide live music in their beer garden, and we jumped at the chance. We played nearly every Friday that year, and something magical happened—people showed up. They danced. They sang along. They reminded us why we do this.
That summer turned into a tradition. After Oktoberfest wrapped up each year, we kept playing Friday nights at Kegel’s—all the way through December. Yes, it got cold. Really cold. The beer garden aptly renamed itself the “Brrr Garden” during those frosty months, but we kept playing and the crowds kept coming. There’s something special about hearing brass music on a freezing Wisconsin night with a beer in your hand and good people around you.
We’re Tally Ho! Brass—named after the pub that fueled our rehearsals, our friendships, and occasionally our courage to attempt that one really difficult Mnozil arrangement we probably weren’t ready for (but nailed anyway, thank you very much).
What started as a group of friends inspired by videos on the internet has become something bigger: a modern blaskapelle bringing authentic European brass tradition and decades of great music. We’ve grown beyond those early rehearsals, but we’ve never lost the spirit that started it all—friends making music together, pushing ourselves to be better, and always, always making time for a post-rehearsal pint.
So here we are: Eight musicians, countless hours of practice, and a deep appreciation for German and Irish beer. We play everything from traditional German and Austrian polkas to Fleetwood Mac, from centuries-old marches to Steely Dan. We’re technically trained and intentionally irreverent. We honor tradition while breaking all the rules.
And yes, we still meet for beers after rehearsal. Some traditions are too important to break.