A cafeteria stage transformed into a viral sensation, a challenge boldly attempted, and laughter erupting as chicken wings turned into instruments of both torment and triumph. This was the situation Independence’s band found itself in.
Independence’s band directors launched a fundraising campaign this October seeking $40,000 in donations to support the school’s band program. They pledged that if the goal was met, the Independence and Nelson band directors would take on the “Hot Ones” challenge. The event, inspired by the “Hot Ones” celebrity interview web series hosted by Sean Evans, consists of participants answering questions while eating chicken wings dipped in progressively hotter sauces.
The community answered the call. Almost $42,000 in contributions later, the Independence cafeteria stage became the “Hot Ones” set for the band holiday party on Dec.15 with dozens of Independence and Nelson band members gathering to watch the challenge go down. The tables on stage were adorned with boxes of crispy wings, cold drinks to fight the flames, and a lineup of ten sauces getting spicier, ending with the infamous “Hot Ones” signature sauce: “The Last Dab”.
The spiciness of a substance is measured in Scoville heat units (SHUs), which quantify the concentration of a compound called capsaicin, which triggers receptors in the tongue and digestive tract called transient receptor potential vanilloid one (TRPV1).
The burning sensation from highly spicy and acidic foods is caused by TRPV1 receptors reacting to the capsaicin of the food. The tongue, throat, and mouth feel like they are on fire because the TRPV1 receptors respond as though they actually were.
“The first four [sauces] were pretty good… number seven was hot. Like, really hot.” said Daniel King, Independence’s head band director. “I started to get dizzy and lightheaded, my fingers were tingling in a weird way. I [couldn’t] control my mouth, I [couldn’t] smile.”
The band directors pushed through the pain, their eyes welling up with tears, tongues burning with heat and minds scrambling to answer questions submitted by students, who cheered, clapped and applauded their attempts to answer throughout the challenge.
King felt the eighth sauce, named “Da Bomb” was the worst of the lot, viewed the comparatively mild ninth sauce “7-pot hot sauce” as the calm before the storm, and thought the iconic “Last Dab” could only be described as “bad”.
While a bell pepper has no SHUs and a jalapeño pepper contains anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000 SHUs, “The Last Dab” is made from the spiciest artificially made peppers in the world, making its approximate SHU score a whopping 2.693 million SHUs, which is why it packs such a potent punch.
“[It was] insanity. Spicy insanity.” said Bradley Baird, Independence and Nelson Director of Percussion and Assistant Band Director. “Very, very hot sauces and good chicken wings, but a crazy challenge.”
Students were also given an opportunity to see how they fared against the hot sauces.
“The sauces really were not that spicy to me, but it was entertaining to see the directors suffer in a fun and harmless way. One of them said it was straight up pain, but I survived.” said Shritan Khammamkar, an Independence junior.
Attending the event also gave future knights a chance to see what high school band can offer.
“It seems cool and I think I’ll learn a lot of lessons from being in band,” said Amal Ali, a sixth grader and Nelson band member.
In spite of the challenge’s difficulty, participants were hopeful about the benefits the challenge had for the community.
“We were able to raise a lot of money for the band and for the students,” said King, “In a fiery, burning hot sauce kind of way, it brought us together.”
