Why Layla Clark’s Section Stopped Playing ‘Thunderstruck’ at Rehearsal
Look a little closer the next time you watch Layla Clark play AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” The camera follows her mallets, but the opening belongs to five percussionists from the Thomas Jefferson High School marching band. During a run-through, the rest of the band stayed quiet. The five stopped playing.
Clark told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the percussionists thought they had done something wrong. Their director, James Mirabella, hadn’t told them they would be on their own at the start of the song. When they stopped, he gave them a simple instruction: “No, no, no. Keep going.”
That was when the players realized the silence was part of the arrangement. Clark remembered looking around at the others and feeling the nerves set in. They had to carry Angus Young’s opening figure together until the rest of the band entered. Every note the audience heard in that stretch came from their section.
The arrangement was part of the Jaguars’ 2025 halftime show, Mirabella’s final season before he retired. Clark recalled that the show also featured AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” On “Thunderstruck,” the students had to give a riff written for electric guitar enough weight to open a football halftime performance on mallets.
The close-up in the clip makes it easy to miss the other four percussionists. Clark is playing a marimba, and the camera stays close enough to see her hands move from bar to bar. Listen to how the section establishes the pace before the larger band changes the sound.
The payoff comes at the entrance. By the time the rest of the Jaguars join in, the opening figure has already set the pace. Watch for that handoff on a replay. The stretch that made the players stop at rehearsal is the part that gives the full band’s arrival its impact.
What the other four players add
In a phone recording this tight, one player can look like the entire opening act. Clark was quick to point out that five mallet players were involved. Keeping the figure together means matching the spacing of the notes as well as the tempo. When five players strike a pattern with that much room around it, the timing is part of what makes it sound like one riff.
Clark told CBS Pittsburgh that the part took her a long time to learn and that she still heard room to improve it. The recording lets you see the work she’s describing. Her hands have to be ready for the next bar before the last note has faded, and the same pattern has to hold up through every repetition.
Listen to the space AC/DC gives the guitar
In AC/DC’s River Plate performance, Angus Young has room to establish the figure before the rest of the arrangement fills in. The sound is different on a football field, but compare when each band enters. Both performances let the audience settle into the pattern before bringing in the weight of the whole group.
What changes when the riff moves to strings
2CELLOS give the same figure to a pair of cellos. The sound of the attack changes again, and the opening is still recognizable within a few notes. Put the three versions side by side and you can hear why Mirabella could give five percussionists the opening by themselves. The riff had enough momentum to carry that space.
