LEWISTON – The reigning champs, South Portland, opened with a piece from “Indiana Jones.” The Leavitt Area High School Marching Band picked an older classic. They took to the football field under the lights Saturday night, posed backs to the crowd in green hats with green plumes, and launched into “Matchmaker” from “Fiddler on the Roof.”

“It’s nerves until you get on the field, then suddenly everything becomes right,” said Leavitt drum major Emile Castonguay, a senior. “I love it; it’s so much fun.”

Eight bands met in the 18th Annual Twin Cities Marching Band Show at Lewiston High School, the third of five competitions in the marching band season.

Leavitt missed its first show in September, so this was only that band’s second time in front of a large crowd. More than 200 parents and teens huddled on the bleachers and cheered after each performance.

“I feel we had a lot more energy and we put a lot more into it,” said Leavitt color guard captain Allison Hunter, a junior.

Despite co-hosting, Lewiston hasn’t had its own marching band for two years. Two students march with Leavitt. One more plays with Auburn.

Lise Dubois wore a maroon Red Eddies Marching Band sweatshirt marked “Pit Crew” and staffed a table selling “Band Geek” T-shirts and sweatshirts, a fundraiser for the Auburn band. She designed the tops with help from her daughter, Amanda, a sophomore who plays saxophone in that marching band.

“It’s really rewarding because the kids work hard,” Dubois said. “You’re so proud; ‘It’s my kid out there.'”

A reason for a little extra pride: She graduated from Edward Little in 1983. “I was a band geek wannabe,” she said.

Auburn, which, like Leavitt, had practiced since August, picked a program of American folk songs.

“It’s pretty exciting to show the community what you do,” said Amanda Dubois.

Each band performs the same pieces of music at all five in-season competitions, making minor adjustments and improving along the way.

Leavitt’s Castonguay, who wore a gray cap, black vest and white gloves while conducting the band with crisp waves of his hands, said conducting is a way of portraying a lot of emotions.

Hunter teased that her friend gets pretty into it, even in off hours.

“We randomly start signing obnoxiously and he’ll conduct to it,” she said.