Funk-Jam Band—With Two UMD alums—to Perform at Bonnaroo Festival

by Daniel Oyefusi ’19 | Photo by Silkyshots

Greg Ormont ’10 stumbled across the phrase “Pigeons Playing Ping Pong” in his introductory psychology textbook at the University of Maryland. Boom. He’d just found the wacky but fitting name for his budding band.

More than 10 years later, Pigeons—a reference to psychologist B.F. Skinner’s experiment in which he conditioned pigeons to play ping pong—has captivated fans around the country with its high-energy performances.

Next week, the band will take its talents to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, whose massive lineup in rural Tennessee features Eminem, Muse and Bon Iver.

“It’s been cool to see the progression from playing in a dorm, playing a café… to playing at the 9:30 Club and so on,” says band member Jeremy Schon ’10.

Ormont was a novice guitarist in 2006 when he searched Cumberland Hall for someone to accompany him. He ran into Schon, and the two hit it off.

“We started jamming on some funky, jazzy, interesting riffs, and he was my unofficial guitar teacher,” Ormont says.

They started performing at open mic nights in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union and opened for rapper Ludacris at Art Attack.

The band added bassist Ben Carrey in 2009 and drummer Alex Petropulos in 2015 and has amassed nearly 50,000 likes on its Facebook page—fans call themselves “The Flock”—through live performances.

At a 2017 New Year’s Eve show in Kentucky, they donned matching Mickey Mouse costumes for a “DisNYE” theme. A fluorescent light show illuminated the venue, and balloons flew around the crowd as Ormont’s voice rang over a groovy rendition of “The Lion King’s” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King.”

“We really perform like it’s our last show and this is our statement,” Ormont says.

Their first album, “Funk EP,” was birthed after a 12-hour jam session in the WMUC radio station during their senior year. Since the all-nighter-turned-debut-album, the band has taken its time to craft three more albums, including “Pizazz,” which dropped in 2017.

In addition to keeping up its frantic tour schedule—around 200 performances a year—Pigeons recently hosted its ninth annual Domefest, a three-day festival that started during Ormont’s and Schon’s senior year.

“It’s the ultimate gathering of The Flock,” Schon says.

While Grammys and Billboard charts aren’t on their radar, Ormont jokingly admits that a goal of the band is to have one of its videos on YouTube surpass the Skinner experiment video in views or likes.

Only a couple hundred thousand more views to go.